MILAN : Exclusive Photos Show Pants in Forefront for Fall and Skirts Are Above the Knees--for Now

Thank heaven we didn’t deep-six our long skirts, short skirts, wide pants or skinny ones. From the looks of these exclusive preview photos from Milan, they’ll all be just the thing for fall.

Pants will undoubtedly have the edge on many designers’ runways--an understandable result of the short-versus-long dilemma. When in doubt, the adage goes, show trousers.

And what a mixed bag we get for fall: Luciano Soprani’s trousers are wide-legged; Gianfranco Ferre’s more tapered, and Romeo Gigli’s bag at the bottom, Charlie Chaplin-style.

Genny pants, on the other hand, are so snug they look plastered to the body. They’re teamed with a short, very fitted jacket. For devotees of the look, a new Genny boutique opened at Bullocks Wilshire this week.

Though hemlines in these photos stop above the knee, it’s a sure bet that longer skirts for fall lurk behind the curtains.

The move to mid-calf won’t be a shock to those who saw couture shows in Europe about a month ago. That’s when Karl Lagerfeld let the cat out of the bag, offering a few long, pencil-slim styles that seemed to predict a fall collection with as many longer skirts as short.

Giorgio Armani’s autumn suit has skirt panels that dip below the hemline. Here too, a hint that Milan’s master designer is playing with as many lengths as are the women who wear his clothes. A new Armani boutique opens in Beverly Hills in September.