It has been a long time -- a decade, in fact -- since Maureen O'Reilly bought a dress. But the real estate agent from Bellevue, Wash., enjoyed ending the hiatus"They are hot again," said O'Reilly, who recently was buying a sleeveless Maggy London black print dress with a black bodice at Macy's in downtown Seattle. "They are a return to the way we used to feel as a kid. It's nostalgic."NPD, a national retail organization based in Port Washington, N.Y., has called 2007 the "Year of the Dress" thanks to buyers such as O'Reilly who are pumping up dress purchases across the country.

NPD estimates that dress sales have risen 30 percent ahead of last year's pace -- six times the increase for all women's apparel.The experts have many theories about what's driving the trend, as do the people actually wearing the garments. This much is known: A dress in 2007 isn't viewed simply as a dress but as a time-saver that spares a woman the chore of matching separates in the dark of an early-morning closet -- and a friend that can camouflage her flaws.any of the styles are empire with the A-line that covers the big butt, which is definitely a good thing," said Laura Kessler, 52, a creative director who lives in Burbank, Calif., and no longer wears only pants. Beyond that, "there's just something really feminine about wearing a dress; it feels girlie and fun. I'm loving it that dresses have come back.""The younger market is wearing it to reveal as much as they can, and the older market is wearing it to reveal what good shape they are in or to hide the shape they are in," said Marshal Cohen, NPD's chief industry analyst."It's exactly back to the future," Cohen said. "And it's not the house dress like the boomer's mom wore. But the boomer as a mom can wear a dress and make it look sexy and stylish."

"We saw an uptick in the back half of '06, and we think it will continue into the fall, the fourth quarter and into 2008," said Loretta Soffe, Nordstrom's general merchandise manager for women's apparel. "The success in the industry is creating more options for the customer." Wrap, sheath, shift and shirt dresses are popular.The return of capacious baby doll and swing styles can be traced to the fall fashion shows, where runway models wore roomy dresses, sometimes atop skinny jeans or tights. The designers' partisans at the likes of Target and H&M then brought the look to the majority of women who weigh more than runway models.Fashion houses didn't cook up the idea on their own. They were, as usual, prodded by the changing attitudes of women themselves, which in some ways have come full circle.Changing workplace
More than 30 years ago, trousers moved to the front of the closet as women decided they wouldn't be hemmed in by skirts, and schools and offices began lifting the ban on pants as proper female attire. Career women in particular saw slacks as somehow more authoritative than dresses and skirts.

Today, many consider a dress as powerful as a pantsuit and entirely appropriate for the job, with the added benefit of being versatile enough to move into the evening."It's about the new form of female empowerment, which is feminine and embracing all the power we have as women," said Debra Stevenson, president of Skyline Studios, a brand-development consulting firm in Los Angeles that has been tracking the dress fad. "Apparel trends, consumer trends in general, are definitely a reflection of where the culture at large is at any given moment."Soffe said that in the past dress sales were driven by occasions, such as special events or parties. But now, she said, women feel more comfortable being "feminine" in the workplace and dresses are becoming a "bit of a new uniform."Aimee Clark, a Seattle resident shopping for dresses at Macy's, said women want a more professional look."We were really relaxed as a society for the last few years. When I'm working, I used to wear jeans the last few years, but I can't do that anymore," said Clark, a creative director for an art company. "There is a turn back to style and being more professional."