High-Spirited : ‘L.A. Law’s’ Michele Greene in the New Thing for Spring: High Waists

Abigail Perkins, the mousy apprentice attorney of McKenzie, Brackman, has blossomed. Abby, who survived countless crises of confidence during her first year on the NBC hit “L.A. Law,” is now a stylish young professional who can argue cases with the best of them and wrest a raise out of the founding partner. On her own time, 25-year-old Michele Greene, who plays the emergent Abby, sheds the conservative Anne Klein Petites she wears on the series for Levi’s and sneakers. Here, however, she steps out in looks that go beyond her on-screen makeover. High waists are definitely high style for spring--as recent New York collections indicated--and Greene shows off some of the season’s sexiest: torso-hugging tanks, curvy cropped jackets and bright stripes in Magic Marker colors. “I’m 5 feet 4, and most clothes for women my size are not designed for a long waist, which I’ve got,” Greene says. But these snug, abbreviated variations on the empire cut are long on appeal for the diminutive as well as the tall.Photographed by David Roth;

hair by Keoni/Cloutier; makeup by Carol Shaw/Cloutier; styling by Beth Bickson/Celestine-Cloutier.