Shift Ahoy!

The chemise family is a closely knit group. Fashion-conscious females who climbed out of the sack only a short while ago now find themselves climbing right back into the sack's first cousin, the shift. Already a slender trend as winter waned, the shift really switched into high with the summer solstice. On beaches from Maine to Malibu, lissome Loreleis clad in the latest two-piece bathing suits arranged themselves across the sand, apparently to ponder such girth-shaking questions as: How is a girl going to look her best when she isn't looking her barest? Thus, in a blinding flash, came the shift to shifts, biggest cover story in beachwear this season.

If the shift has a secret (besides what's under it), the secret is versatility. It comes in a vast selection of fabrics --solids or prints -- varying in length from several inches above the knee right down to the ankle, though the definitive summer version is apt to be cotton, plain-necked, sleeveless, and fairly short of skirt, with side slits topped by tiny bows. Priced from $2.98 to about $50.00 the shift can go practically anywhere on practically anyone. It is fine for toe-testing at the ocean's edge, or to cover up wet bathing suits for drinks on the clubhouse verandah (apres beach, nothing picks one up like a good belt). It is also socially acceptable for cocktails and dinner at the most exclusive playgrounds in the East. And house wives love it. "Just perfect," says one enthusiast, "not only cool, but some thing you can wear with individuality "belted or unbelted or belted low around the hips or even in an Empire line."

While women of all ages traipse along happily with the trend, the male population has yet to embrace the shift in public. Provocative it may be, hinting at perfections scarcely imagined unless the wearer were rendered shiftless. But as fashion gives way to fat, milady often assumes shapes and sizes that require all-too-little imagination. There is an answer for that, too: the tent shift, a sloping expanse of hopsacking, stretch fabric, burlap or denim that keeps her bulkiest problems right under the Big Top where they belong.

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