Odds & Ends Around the Valley

Short but Not So Sweet

Many girls used to welcome prom night as a rare opportunity to wear a long, romantic dress. Few girls will be looking sweet 16 at the prom this year. Sexy 16 is more like it.

“They’re buying very short, strapless dresses--either a bustier or off-the-shoulder look. And a lot of times the dresses come with short bolero jackets,” noted Eleanor Kan, the dress buyer for Judy’s, a young women’s clothing chain of 67 outlets with headquarters in Van Nuys.

At Tanjee, a Tarzana dress shop that is popular with many prom-goers, two styles are in big demand. “One is a flamenco style, that is very fitted to the body on top with a real full skirty bottom--sometimes very short in front and a longer tail in the back that just touches the ground,” said Karen Travis, manager and buyer. Or the short bottom is tiered with flounces.

“The other look is very tight--spandex-y, puckery fabric that shows off every inch of your body, and they’re a little shorter than mid-thigh. The girls wear big hair with it--long hair that’s wild and curly.”

For several years now, black and white have been the biggest-selling colors for prom dresses. Satin is a popular fabric, especially when adorned with sequins. As for accessories, Judy’s Kan reports that long, dangling earrings are in vogue. “Cutesy is out,” she said.

Wanted: One Big Hutch

When you think about it, the Easter Bunny is a pretty strange character. The silent rabbit’s mission is to give children a basket filled with enough candy to send them to Mars without a spaceship. Unlike their pact with Santa Claus, there’s no coal provision for unruly pre-Easter behavior.

Sitting in the middle of the Sherman Oaks Galleria is one of the biggest stuffed Easter bunnies you’ve probably ever seen. At 11 feet tall and 9 feet wide, the pink rabbit sits there like a pastel King Kong, while a costumed Easter Bunny character takes care of the business of greeting the kids.

“Our rabbit weighs between 700 and 900 pounds, and it breaks down into two pieces,” said mall spokeswoman Pam Leon. “We just bought it this year, and they had to drive it out to us from Baltimore in a truck. We still don’t know where we’re going to store it.”

Maybe at Jenny Craig’s?

Thirst-Quenching Decisions

The choices are many: bottled water, tap water or water that passes through a purification system in your home’s plumbing?

“Unfortunately, some people in our business make claims that your city water is poison. We don’t take that approach,” stated Terry Lancaster, president of Mountain Fresh Drinking Water Systems with headquarters in Valencia.

His company installs a reverse osmosis system in homes--usually in the kitchen plumbing. The system isolates the solids found in tap water so that they don’t end up in your glass.

“About 70% of our customers come to us because of taste, or they’ve been bottled-water users and they find that we’re cheaper,” Lancaster said. “We can provide a very good tasting, healthy product, but we’re not in competition with the city. They do a good job.”

John Stallcup, marketing manager for Sparkletts Drinking Water, said: “Tap water is fine. It meets all the requirements it’s supposed to. Bottled water, on the other hand, must meet much more stringent standards.”

Debating the health merits of tap versus bottled water sidesteps broader issues, Stallcup says. “It’s a cultural thing in many cases for people to drink bottled water. This is the only state where there are three generations of customers who have never drunk tap water. Asians and Mexicans drink a lot of bottled water because that is what is done in their countries. And senior citizens who are worried about sodium drink a lot of bottled water too.”

Stallcup points out that we consume less than 1% of the water that comes into our homes. “Most of it is washed down the toilet and sink,” he said.

In a few weeks Sparkletts will introduce a 3-gallon bottle intended for countertop use.

Overheard

“Sometimes I tell myself, ‘Snap out of it. Things could be worse. What if you had to appear on television in a bathing suit?’ ” --Woman walking down Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, to her friend