Something in a Sleeve for Spring

Filippo Monteforte/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesSleeves to the elbow from Prada. More Photos »

From the look of the spring shows last month, fashion has had a wake-up call. Designers who routinely cater to stringy adolescents, or parade arm-baring sheaths that only Michelle Obama could love, suddenly seemed to get that their most devoted clients — women well over 40 with upscale tastes and incomes to match — view the first lady’s biceps with serious pangs of envy.

This year a handful of tastemakers, among them Dries van Noten, Joseph Altuzarra, Karl Lagerfeld and even the perennially youth-conscious Marc Jacobs finally acknowledged those customers, offering them camouflage in the shape of . . . sleeves.

Long scarce on the runways, caped sleeves, belled and puffed variations, bracelet sleeves and those extending to the wrists have returned in force. Their resurgence may well owe a debt to the Duchess of Cambridge, who flits around London, her arms discreetly covered. Or to hit shows like “Homeland,” whose heroine would be apt to think twice before baring her shoulders in a crowded Beirut market.

Or, for that matter, to a belated recognition that much of high fashion’s fan base is in the Middle East.

Whatever the impetus, frocks and blouses with sleeves are likely to give more-revealing styles a run for the money in the spring, not just on the runways but also in mainstream stores. Retailers like Nordstrom, Gap and Bloomingdale’s are already showcasing dresses with sleeves on their Web sites. And by next season, presumably, a wardrobe feature that once telegraphed matron or (shudder) mother of the bride, will have acquired a bracing dose of cool.

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