Michelle Obama's toned arms spark a trend: London Times

Quoted via London Times:

. . . what all the commentators weighing into armsgate have so far failed to take into account is that, come next autumn, we'll all be baring arms. That's because, assuming you're not planning to dress like an anorexic hell's angel, the sleeveless dress - all gentle womanly curves and ladylike knee lengths - is The Look for the coming months. It's already with us to an extent, courtesy of Roland Mouret, Giambattista Valli, Oscar de la Renta and - yes, it must be conceded - Victoria Beckham, all of whom have been championing the grown-up, ever-so-slightly retro, sleeveless dresses for some time. There is hardly a designer who hasn't ventured into this territory for autumn.

Placed into the broader context, next to the inexorable covering up of the female anatomy that has been occurring - higher necklines, thick, nay, impenetrable legwear in which boots seem to have magically grafted themselves onto matte black tights - it's clear that we're going through one of the human race's periodical shifts in erogenous perception. The last time that anyone got this heated about an exposed part of the female anatomy was when Alexander McQueen's bumster trousers sparked a half-decade of whale-tails and muffin tops (if only designers thought through their high art concepts a little more). more