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For decades, the rise and fall of hemlines has been the cause of chatter among designers, sociologists and even Wall Street investors, who turned to them as an indicator of where the market was headed. The conversations tended to focus on skirts and dresses, though. It was taken pretty much as a given that the hem of a pair of pants should more or less hit at the ankle.
In the jeans business, that may be a given no longer, considering the opposite positions staked out by a pair of jeans lines rolling out this year.
In London, designer Suzy Radcliffe has launched a line of jeans -- called Radcliffe -- with legs that can be adjusted at home without a sewing machine or scissors, to accommodate wearers of different heights and also different heel sizes.
"I was sick of jeans where the bottoms were sagging and hems were dragging," said Radcliffe. "I wear jeans...