The baggy look bottoms out

Parents and teachers can breathe a sigh of relief. It's official: The Wall Street Journal reports that ultra-baggy jeans - the ones with wide legs that drag on the ground - are out. The look, which was huge a year ago, has since been usurped by mainstream retailers, and trend-setting teens ditched it faster than a geek with a pocket-pen holder.

Cutting-edge teens have moved on to cargo pants with lots of pockets. They're wearing sleeker carpenter's pants, or pants with drawstrings. Lest adults get too excited at this positive fashion change, teens are still embracing the '70s, and, while the pants are less bulky of fabric, they still have wide bell bottoms.

Some specialty stores such as Pacific Sunwear of California and Gadzooks of Dallas did not get off the baggy bandwagon soon enough, and were forced to unload the unwanted pants by offering steep discounts after Christmas.