by Julia Lyon, New York Shopping Editor

Though they've been seen around the fashion industry for over a year, the bra strap headband has only recently landed on the average New York woman's head. Designed by Ward, an editorial stylist at the salon Bumble and Bumble, for use in the fall of '98 Moschino show, the hair bands were gentle on the head and the environment (there's a use for all your old underwear now), and were a "simple, straightforward look" that the girls could have done themselves, in the words of a Bumble spokesperson. They call it the $9.99 Bumble Band.

So it was that the masses knew the hair accessory existed—fashion rags wrote it up last spring—but most of us girls didn't know where to get it. That's now changing as discount chain pharmacies like Ricky's have begun including the elastic in their hair sections. One downtown Ricky's at 590 Broadway is offering it in pastels and that ever-popular New York black at a mere $3.99. Even the venerable Saks Fifth Avenue is carrying the hair bands in a variety of colors, including some with rhinestone decorations.

Jo and Allen Smith, co-owners of Fab 208 in the East Village, are selling about a dozen bra strap headbands a week. In their stock since Christmas, the hairbands are exactly the same concept as those at Bumble and Bumble, but at a lower price. "I'm interested in selling something to the waitress on the corner," explains Jo, when asked who their clientele is. The trendy but unpretentious store aims to make trends accessible and inexpensive either by recreating something like a Kate Spade bag at a lower price or finding their own manufacturer of the product, as they did for the hairbands. I guess I fit the profile of their customer; I bought my bra strap from them.—Julia Lyon

The latest trends in fashion start on the local level and spread out across the nation—often before you can blink twice. "Suddenly in Style" profiles will focus on the latest "must-have" pieces and how they came to be. Spotted something new recently? Contact Julia Lyon.