Even though you might not be doing a lot of shopping this fall, take heart.  Being on-trend next year may be as close as your mother’s—or, better yet, grandmother’s—closet.

Looking at the Spring 2009 collections, we noticed a new sort of primness that we haven’t seen in a long time.  Hemlines are starting to fall, not only in reaction to our economic insecurity , but also because, after several years of above-the-knee lengths,  fashion consumers are ready for a change.

Lots of A-list design houses showed longer skirts and dresses in their spring collections this month, including:

   
    Chanel

   
    Dries Van Noten

    Dolce & Gabanna

   
    ...and everyone’s favorite genius, Marc Jacobs.  (We’ll discuss those shoulder pads later.)

 
   
    Of course,  just because it’s on the runway doesn’t mean it will ever necessarily see the light of day anywhere else.  (There were plenty of see-through blouses on the runway as well, but we hardly think the whole nipple thing is going to take off—sorry, guys). 
   
   
    But we think this might be the beginning of an overall shift for four reasons:

1) The longer lengths look fresh after so many seasons of minis
2)The newly-somber public mood is ripe for a more covered-up aesthetic
3) They’re easy to wear.  (Even with tights, short skirts require their share of maintenance)
3) They’ve been spotted on the street

In fact, we started noticing longer skirts in some of the Sartorialist‘s photos of the fashion week crowds in Paris and Milan.  (Since, for some reason, they always seem to be at least a season ahead of the rest of us, the French and Italians are excellent Early Indicators of what’s to come.)  Like this one of Giavanna Battaglia, one of fashion’s undisputed Cool Kids:

Although we had a taste of the ankle-length last summer with the patio dress, this was the first time we’d seen a fashionista in anything shin-length in years.

    After that, we seemed to be spotting longer dresses everywhere. 

    This very buttoned up (literally)  Dior dress, hemmed below-the-knee (unlike the model’s version)

was THE look at Paris fashion week , as Bill Cunningham chronicles in another one of his fab NYT fashion & style slideshows.

And we’re seeing plenty of full-length skirts as well, giving the patio dress concept a more sportswear-type edge.  Even on the runway, Dries Van Noten’s slim gold lame skirt—casually paired with a classic white button-down—looks totally wearable.

   
    The mass-market fashion mags are coming up with some interesting new ways to wear long as well;  this month’s Lucky magazine‘s “Month Of Outfits”  feature (a great  tool for creating new outfits with the clothes you already have, btw) included a full, silk floor-length skirt for day-to-night outfits:

    Of course, we’re not saying you have to dump your short skirts and dresses yet—the mini skirt will always be a classic look for the under 30 crowd,

   
    and the rest of us have plenty of time to ease into the idea of a longer hemline. 

    But don’t say we didn’t warn you….