Q: Is it still OK to wear skirts a couple of inches above the knee or is that passe this season? Help! I have a great suit that I want to wear, but it has a short skirt. All the new clothes I've bought haven't been shortened -- everything is at or around the knee.

A: You know how, no matter what the question is, Dear Abby always says: "Get professional help." I feel like I'm always saying: "It all depends." But it does. In this case, it depends on how you want to look.

Last year, the New York Times reported that short skirts were totally over, and even Ally McBeal was replacing her microskirts with pants suits. And, indeed, the 1980s execu-tart suit, with its double message of dress-for-success tailored jacket and scandalously short skirt was looking very dated and kind of tacky. To most people it still does. But: For this spring several designers showed miniskirts all over again. And, difficult as it may be to believe, the '80s are hot -- at least among fashion true believers.

So here's your dilemma: You can wear your short-skirted suit and look ahead-of-the-curve to trendoids -- but at the cost of 1) looking behind the times to people who don't pay such close attention to fashion's ups and downs, and assume the 1980s are over, and 2) attracting the attentions of the kind of guy who's inevitably drawn to the shortest skirt in the room no matter who's wearing it. If you're OK with that, fine.

If it's not what you have in mind, try the suit on in front of a mirror with textured opaque stockings and low-heeled shoes in the same color. Short skirts look shorter with bare legs and high heels, so dark stockings and low-heeled shoes could do the trick.

Patricia McLaughlin is a nationally syndicated fashion columnist.
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