we all reuse

Like the stock market, hemlines have been rising and falling since the 1920s.

Many think that shorter hemlines appear during times of a good economy, and longer hemlines mean an economic recession. The cost of the cloth does not seem to matter.

Fashion no longer seems to go in such long cycles - we have designers showing micro minis and floor sweeping skirts every season.

What seems to be more relevant now is the cut of the cloth, especially around the body itself.

Our past few years of economic growth have led to an increase in consumer spending on luxury goods,and the return of a certain kind of traditionalism and conservatism in fashionable circles.

Back has come tight tailoring, tiny corseted high waists, and many of the fashion accents of the eighties (and indeed the forties) very high heels, furs, shoulder pads. Even the more flowing styles for evening have high empire waists.

Contrast this with the grunge fashions of the economically low early nineties, or the low hipster ‘boho’ fashions of 2000 and 2001, when the dot com crash had hit and the waistlines were down in the pubic region and everything was on show.

One key designer fashion forecast for the coming year is a high waistline, but with loads of volume and layers, belted together into a look that has not been seen since the tricky late seventies. Cue Harem pants, duster coats, fabric accessories, and the clothing of the Arabian nights.

Will the public wear it? What on earth does this look mean for the global economy?

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Since this story was first written in June 2006, the sixties revival look with it's ultra short tunics, skirts and dresses has been the SS 2007 hit. Volume has however remained a key trend, and it is this mix that updates these mini's from a mere mod pastiche.

So what do we think of when we see a voluminous tunic? A classy way of showing some leg, or grown women wearing children's smocks..