1.   And it will be a major surprise if the story is different in Paris, where avant-garde designers have been showing long skirts for a while.

2.   Armani showed more pants than any other Milanese designer, and when he showed skirts, they were ankle length.

3.   Bonnie Pressman, an executive vice president and the fashion director of Barneys New York, thinks that designers who showed long skirts were influenced by haute couture.

4.   Helmut Lang, Marc Jacobs and Donna Karan all showed pleated skirts, and Calvin Klein showed skirts with an airy fullness.

5.   Kawakubo showed long skirts in neon stripes.

6.   Now, about the fashion show ... Azria showed lace skirts with cashmere turtleneck sweaters and leather jackets, which looked very Westside.

7.   Often she showed languid skirts with pointed, asymmetric hems dipping a few inches in back.

8.   The idea now is to show the skirt just off the waist, or maybe, as van Noten did, with more volume, even petticoats.

9.   A full black marabout skirt was shown with a fancy black-gold pullover fashioned to have a chocolate-bar effect -- a striking Chanel original.

10.   The skirts are shown a couple of inches below the knee.