Black Dress

The little black dress has certainly gone through a metamorphosis. For what seems like forever, this was the sort of garment every woman wanted to keep on hand. Simple and unobtrusive, a little black dress could be counted on to make one look proper, discreet but well-dressed and never out of place.All that has changed. This winter's little black dresses are the stuff of sensationalism. Every woman with a great figure and there seem to be a lot of them is parading around showing off her good shape in variations of this hottest new fashion.

Mary Bell Grempler, a colorful real estate saleswoman whose pioneering firm grew to become the No. 1 independently owned real estate business in the state, died Monday of emphysema at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. The Stevenson resident was 81. "Mary Bell was very independent and highly spirited. She was a true character among women and men and quite a lady," said Helen Delich Bentley, former congresswoman and federal maritime commissioner. "She was a person who never hesitated to let you know exactly what she thought," said Mrs. Bentley, a longtime friend.

It may be the one uniform that women genuinely like to wear.The little black dress has been rediscovered as every woman's ultimate fashion necessity. Its graceful lines and slimming color give it a versatility unmatched by any other garment, except perhaps the man's navy blazer.But the man's jacket doesn't match the LBD for versatility. The best little black dresses go from the office to a black-tie affair or even a nightclub with just a change of accessories.The dress returned to the mass market last fall, but it has become such a favorite that, this season, many department stores have created sections displaying multiple versions.

The two-artist exhibit of watercolors at Slayton House Gallery takes advantage of that medium's colorful and casual qualities. These are artistically well-planned compositions, though they seem pretty easygoing in nature. Lynn Ferris has a certain amount of rigor in composing her portraits, for instance, but her subjects don't seem like they've been holding static poses for hours. Even when her approach includes diamond-gridded and other formally precise abstract backgrounds, the human figures in the foreground don't just seem like pieces set against a game board.

I will be attending my 30th high school reunion in June. It will be a dinner and dance in a hotel. I'm 48, an active exerciser and, with a little help, still have my natural blond hair.I am size 12/14, and while my waist is not as slim as it used to be, my legs and arms are great for my age.I want to look glamorous -- not like a "mother of the bride." Have you some suggestions?Dressing for high school and college reunions is always a tricky business, so why not go for that foolproof standby -- the little black dress.

Q: I grew up in Geneva, Switzerland, but moved to the United States five years ago for college. I'm going back for my first visit this spring and am looking forward to seeing my old friends. I know I'll be taken out to the new bars and clubs, and I want to look great.In fact, the image I want to project is that of a "with it" New Yorker. What should I buy?A: Nicole Miller is a designer who's in touch with the club life in New York, so I went to her for advice for you.She suggests a great but simple black or navy dress in "Jackie O" or '60s style that you can accessorize in different ways.

In the world of fashionable holiday dressing, we've done splashes of color, flounces and frills. Flamboyant beading, daring ornamentation and even evening pantsuits have made the occasional trendy appearance. And, of course, hemlines have risen and fallen -- and risen again. This year, however, the star of the season is a well-loved item that's never gone out of style -- the little black dress. "There's a kind of a revival of the little black dress," said Gina Tovar, Nordstrom's East Coast fashion director.

Mary Bell Grempler, a colorful real estate saleswoman whose pioneering firm grew to become the No. 1 independently owned real estate business in the state, died Monday of emphysema at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. The Stevenson resident was 81. "Mary Bell was very independent and highly spirited. She was a true character among women and men and quite a lady," said Helen Delich Bentley, former congresswoman and federal maritime commissioner. "She was a person who never hesitated to let you know exactly what she thought," said Mrs. Bentley, a longtime friend.

"I wish," I said savagely, still mindful of his laugh and throwing discretion to the wind, "I wish I was a woman of about thirty-six dressed in black satin and wearing pearls." With those despairing words, the young and gauche second Mrs. De Winter of Daphne du Maurier's novel Rebecca pours her heart out. And in the moment in which she confesses her deepest yearnings to her aloof and much older husband, we know exactly what she means. She aches to be sophisticated. To be elegant but understated.

Q: I'm going to our symphony ball this year. It's the social event of the season, and I want to buy a spectacular, colorful outfit. But I also want it to be versatile enough so I can wear it to different functions without looking as if I am always wearing the same thing. Can you recommend an outfit or designer who has really dressy pieces along those lines?A: Italian designer Gianni Versace understands the problem. He tells me "the speed of modern life demands versatile clothes."Mr. Versace says the answer could be a sleeveless dress and jacket.

Angela Grube quickly combed through the clothing rack ignoring several pristine looking garments before the prized item caught her eye: a black dress with a torn zipper and holes in the underarms. Grube was shopping in the basement of a vintage store in Hampden when she found the treasure: a three-quarter length, cocktail dress adorned with bluish glass beads atop embroidered trees. She basked in her good luck. The damage to the dress would be a quick fix for the self taught seamstress and vintage clothing store owner.

When it comes to fashion, Nasrine Magaletta could teach a course. She used to model fulltime. Now, she does so some evenings at Power Plant Live's MEX restaurant, in addition to her fulltime position at a marketing director for a corporate real estate firm. Fashion is more than a passing fancy to the 22-year-old Catonsville resident. It's a science she still loves to study. Age: 22 Residence: Catonsville Job: Director of marketing for Heffner & Weber Companies/MEX promotional model Self-described style : "Colorful, updated and individually trendy" The look: Multicolor satin cocktail dress.

This is the season for the crisp white shirt, which, incidentally, has never really gone out of fashion. It's classic and sexy, simple and clean. But there's a danger in wearing the staple: if not done right, it's not so much a basic as it is boring. Alexis MacDonald shows us how to do the white shirt justice, with just a hint of a crisp blouse peeking through under a slim, black sweater and fun-colored pants. Her accessories (animal print and classic) jazz up the look. And even her ponytail looks fresh with a headband added.

If you haven't seen tennis star Maria Sharapova's new ad for Nike, get one of your kids to find it for you on the Internet. The ad follows the statuesque and lovely winner of the U.S. Open as she makes her way from her hotel room to the court at Flushing Meadows in New York. Along the way, hotel maids, doormen, cabdrivers -- even TV commentators John and Patrick McEnroe up in the booth -- sing "I Feel Pretty" from the musical West Side Story. I won't spoil the punch line -- and it really has a lot of punch -- but the ad has all the cool quotient that we have come to expect from Nike.

This fall, black is the new black. Color is out. (Give or take a splash of red.) Dark is in. Black, always in fashion, is this season's must-have color, says Michael Fink, a Saks Fifth Avenue vice president and women's fashion director. "Next to the drab grays and browns currently saturating the market, black looks positively uplifting." Some shoppers are skeptical. One of them is Catherine Hamilton, a 35-year-old who lives in SoWeBo and works in sales. Black is ordinary, she says. "Every season women are looking for something special, something that will pop, something that will make them look great.

Anna Nicole Smith wants the public to think she's a sexpot, but the U.S. Supreme Court to think she's a classy, grieving widow. Good luck with that. Smith, a former Playboy model, hasn't actually said that's what she's trying to accomplish, but her clothes say as much. Yesterday, Smith appeared outside the Supreme Court, prepared to battle over her late husband's fortune. She dressed like a Hollywood starlet headed to a funeral -- black overcoat, black dress, black hose, big black sunglasses.

It's quite a display: short, pouffy party dresses stiff with taffeta and netting; long, wispy evening gowns adrift in chiffon and lace; dazzling cocktail suits shimmering with sequins.All this season's hottest trends, all in one showroom -- that of After Five, manufacturer of the moderately priced ($100-$400), special-occasion fashions that are a staple in better department and specialty stores.Most designers include a few party outfits with each of their sportswear or career-wear collections.

New York -- Fashion Week came to a close last week just as a snowstorm approached to blanket the city. The chilly weather was a fitting end to the eight-day extravaganza of top designers' picks for fall and next winter, which showed us how to go out and brave the cold in style. Here are some of the looks for next season: Coats and wraps From the beautifully embroidered coats at Bill Blass, to the fur-drenched wraps at Zang Toi, to the artfully loose and unstructured numbers at Marc Jacobs, women will have myriad choices as to how to cover up. "You just felt this sense of warmth and coziness and luxury with all the coats," says Dannielle Romano, editor-at-large of DailyCandy.

NEW YORK - I Am My Own Wife hadn't been written when playwright Doug Wright invited Jefferson Mays to the Sundance Theatre Institute in Utah to work on the script. Mays asked what the play would be about. "A 65-year-old East German transvestite," Wright told him. "Yeah, oh, absolutely!" Mays replied. Little did the New York-based actor - a veteran of eight productions at Center Stage - realize that he would still be portraying the late German cross-dresser (and more than 30 other characters)