Q: I'm wearing a lightweight rayon crepe dress to a wedding, ankle-length with side slits to the knee. Do I wear a short slip?

A: Yes. The other day on the street I passed a woman wearing a chic black dress, black stockings, black shoes -- and a white slip that kept poking out through the slit in the back of her skirt. Big mistake. All you saw was the slip. The whole point of a slip is that it should keep your dress from sticking to your stockings without calling attention to itself. Which is why you should wear a short slip under your side-slit dress. (And why you should wear a black slip under a black dress.) Warning: Make sure the hem of your slip doesn't make a visible ripple across the dress. If it does, try a jersey slip with no lace at the hem.

Once upon a time, having your slip show was about the second-worst thing that could happen to a lady. The worst was having the shadow of your legs show through your dress with the light behind you -- which was why you wore a slip in the first place. Now, nobody cares if your legs show. So nobody talks about slips. And hardly anybody sells them. But it's still not that attractive to have your dress cling to your stockings and get wadded up between your thighs as you walk. Of course, if you don't wear stockings in the first place it's not a problem. But the stockingless look is over and hosiery is back in a big way for fall, so maybe slips will follow.

Patricia McLaughlin is a nationally syndicated fashion columnist.
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