Sleeves Gone Wild!

On a recent evening, Hill, who is forty-one, browsed the exhibition during off-hours. She wore a puff-sleeve Ulla Johnson dress that rustled with each step. “Of course I love a statement sleeve myself,” she said. The dimly lit exhibition room was filled with mannequins dressed in archived garments by designers such as Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, and Helmut Lang. “Maybe ten or twelve years ago, I would take women in particular through the exhibitions, and they would look at the contemporary clothing and say, ‘Why doesn’t anything have sleeves?’ ” Hill said. “Even dresses for fall and winter were sleeveless.” Was this, as some have theorized, the hidden influence of Michelle Obama, a noted arm-barer? “I think it was more about what was available to women from designers,” Hill said. “Michelle Obama has always been very fashionable, and she was in that fashion moment.” She went on, “Now I think the pendulum has swung the other way.”