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Moving the fashion bar, if only slightly, is the industry's way to get people to buy more clothes, of course. But designers are also hoping a wasp waist is easier to pull off -- or pull in, thanks to Spandex. The look can be forgiving on women 35 and older, who spent $45 billion on clothes in 2003 -- half of the overall take of the women's-apparel industry. Teresa Heinz Kerry's white cotton jacquard suit on the night her husband spoke to the Democratic National Convention had a round collar, short lapels and nipped-in waist.
"If something is well-cut and defined at the waist, it instantly slims you," says Ellis Kreuger, head designer for the fashion house Tocca, which introduced a $297 belted suit jacket as part of its waist-conscious line this season. But Wayne Scot Lukas, a stylist for Janet Jackson, Cindy Crawford and Meryl Streep, warns that pulling in a belt too tight can make a person "look like an unappetizing sausage linked in the middle."
Modeling agencies already are seeing expanding demand for shrinking midsections. Mike Lyons, owner of the Lyons Group model agency in New York, says that generally, his customers have requested models with a more classic 35-24-36 measurement. But recently, he says, some apparel makers have requested curvier models -- hips of 38 inches, for example, instead of 36 -- because larger hips make the waist look smaller.
Dani Korwin, whose New York specialty agency's roster includes hand and torso models, says she has been booking a lot of photo shoots for belts. "You want someone with a nice, trim waist," Ms. Korwin says. "The focus is moving upward." Undergarment makers say they, too, are feeling the pinch. Maidenform says that sales of its "waist nipper" products -- "we don't use the word 'girdle' anymore," says company President Maurice Reznik -- were up 20% in June 2004 from the previous year. Its long-torso version, specifically designed to create an hourglass figure, is the top seller overall in its waist-nipper category.
