Fashion: Tired of Chic Simple? Welcome to the New Romance

And thank designer newcomers Alber Elbaz and Stella McCartney for giving it just the right flair

Mott Street in Little Italy, Manhattan's newest locus of hip, is where modish factions of the young professional class gather in cafes to talk about movies starring Steve Buscemi and to chain-smoke as though it were Milan or 1956. Mott Street is, in other words, a place you might envision as fashion's capital of spartan black. On a northern tip, though, sits a tiny 1 1/2-year-old shop named Calypso, where, on any given weekend, stylish young shoppers slither past one another to get at a collection of near-sheer pastel sweaters, lacy skirts, candy-colored coats and dusty blue slip dresses, coquettish clothes...

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