Article: Dresses star in dim economy. (women's fashions)

NEW YORK -- Within the slumping retail environment, dress departments are showing pockets of strength.

Store executives say social-occasion dressing, day-into-evening dresses, black dresses, knits, trapeze silhouettes and large sizes are yielding better than average selling rates.

It's items with versatility, embellishments such as beads or sequins, dresses with jackets, as well as short, tight sexy numbers that are perking up the category.

Some retailers say they're in a "dress cycle," meaning that dresses are hot, following years of being in the doldrums. After avoiding dresses in the Eighties, consumers have developed an appetite for them, ...

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