Penney's has revamped memories of the bobbysoxer era in its spring collections.
This means cheerful and young, more fun than fashionable. It also means platform sandals, huge ones that cause an unsteady walk. When you are this young, who cares about walking?
It also means a lot of odds and ends: sporty cotton shorts with double flap-pockets for detail, worn with shrunken plain or striped tops; it means vests and one-button cardigans in shocking pink or strong turquoise, perhaps teamed with skin-tight pedalpushers.
New extras include hooded cotton sleeveless tops, usually in a pretty colour, though there is an update on a biking theme in khaki: jerkins and fatigues feature here.
Dresses play a very small part, just a few in pink that wriggle down the body and are worn with flicked-out 1940s hair-dos - and those platforms. It certainly comes across as a quaint rerun.
So if the young are in clover at Penney's, able to pick up scores of little pieces for under £20, others are not quite forgotten. Linen trousers, easily cut, with long button-through matching coats, are elegant enough for anyone, and the colours olive, indigo blue and stone add to the stylishness (not much here over £20).
There are also long-jacketed trouser suits in neutrals, but hardly a dress or skirt in sight. Despite that, the overall feel is feminine and pretty.
So while the emphasis is on the sporty and cheerful things of spring, with some hot, sizzling colours offset with neutrals and black, there is this other more sedate part in linen that should have wide appeal. However, the young look like having most of the fun.