Scrapped Sack

From Manhattan's cluttered Seventh Avenue, hub of the $5 billion women's garment industry, came a pronouncement last week: the sack is dead, and the chemise is so changed it will hardly be recognized. A record swarm of 3,578 out-of-town buyers crowded into the garment district for the annual June showings of fall fashions, heard the judgment of the manufacturers: they simply are not making the sack. As for chemises, since some big manufacturers found they had dropped to 5% of sales, they are on the way out, too.

Said a buyer: "The one truism of the dress business is that any design that requires slender hips will never be commercially popular."

For fall, buyers turned to the "relaxed look," a slimmer, trimmer, tighter version of the chemise. One fast comer is the empire style--a bust-emphasizing high waist with a flaring skirt. Fall dresses will be two or three inches shorter than last fall's models, and colors will be gayer and splashier.

Without a clear style for fall, buyers were a bit confused as to what to choose. They took a little of everything and not much of any one thing, and left Seventh Avenue with some unfilled order books.

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