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The tea-length circle skirt is back — are you buying?

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At the Louis Vuitton store relaunch in London last week, celebs such as Kirsten Dunst, Pixie Geldof and Alexa Chung ditched their body-conscious minidresses for a ladylike look that hasn’t been in vogue for eons: the tea-length circle skirt.

The demure (nearly bookish) skirt style crept back onto the Fall 2010 runways at Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs. But whether it would ever filter down onto the street — and into lower-priced collections — remained to be seen.

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We are, after all, still riding the miniskirt/minidress wave. And the tea-length circle skirt is what June Cleaver wore; it’s almost synonymous with ‘50s-era homemakers (though Audrey Hepburn certainly made it look sassy in her heyday).

That the style is so far removed from the abbreviated skirts currently in stores may be its greatest appeal. The retro style feels surprisingly fresh and modern.

So far, I’ve only spotted a few circle skirts in L.A. — one at a sample sale in Echo Park (worn rather ironically with retro-red lipstick and curled Betty Page bangs), and another on a particularly chic photo shoot producer, who paired hers with a tucked-in sailor-striped shirt and ballet flats (the overall effect was perfection).

But now that notables are cottoning to the trend, we’re bound to see more. And Anthropologie, which has long reveled in reviving ‘50s style, is already selling a cheaper model: Edme & Esyllte’s ‘Shifting Buttons’ skirt ($118), which features a sketchy rhombus motif that surely would have delighted Patsy Cline.

-- Emili Vesilind

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