Saggy Slacks Make a Debut

Baggy jeans are winning converts--but not everywhere First it was la cigarette: women virtually had to lie down so that they could pull the stiletto-slim jeans over their hips. A few deep inhalations to close the zipper and, voila, skintight denim pants. Now the French are going in the opposite direction, and their latest innovation may undo some of the psychic damage that la cigarette inflicted on Weight Watchers dropouts. Baggy jeans have arrived.

The fit is tight at the waist and in the back, loose at the hips and thighs, tapered at the ankle. Since summer the new silhouette, mostly in denim and corduroy, has been cropping up increasingly, combined with close-fitting T shirts, dressy silk blouses, and short boots. Response to the new look so far has been liveliest in New York City and Miami, where buyers for department stores are having trouble keeping up with demand. French versions of the baggy jeans, dubbed "Texas," sell for more than $75 at such trendy New York stores and boutiques as Bendel and Henry Lehr; U.S.-made baggies are cheaper. Bloomingdale's reports that it has sold almost 5,000 of the new jeans at $38 to $58 a pair since August. Says Buyer Susan Volk: "We haven't had something that exploded like this since I have been with the store." In Miami, a buyer for Burdines who caught the fever while visiting New York has been scurrying to reorder the saggy slacks for several weeks.

Customers snapped up the entire stock of baggies at a string of exclusive boutiques in one week. Says Cuqui Carrillo of the Twenty-Four Collection: "Everyone is dying to get them."

The phenomenon is still a fledgling fad elsewhere. In Boston and Atlanta, many department store buyers have adopted a wait-and-see attitude and are limiting supply. "They're really horrible," says one Boston department store manager, "and normally things that don't look good don't last." Body-conscious Californians have yet to be seduced by the latest fashion invasion. Explains one 40-year-old sylph: "I worked really hard to stay looking good, and I'm not going to cover it up with baggies." The jeans have been well received among Chicago high schoolers, but older customers still seem to be too timid to go public with the new look.

Roomier pants may catch on as more women opt for comfort over the tight, almost girdled feeling. Says Lorelei Davis, whose Fiorucci store in Chicago sells baggy pants in Day-Glo colors and a variety of fabrics: "Fashion is a reaction, and women aren't that comfortable in tight pants." That may be true, but it is scant consolation to many men. Grumbles one New York male: "I don't think the men of America will put up with this.

They no longer know the truth of the bottom line, because there is no bottom line to baggy jeans."

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