Tailored Shorts for Summer - NYTimes.com EVERYBODY knows that "The Devil Wears Prada" was better as a movie than as a novel, thanks to the directing (David Frankel), the screenplay (Aline Brosh McKenna) and the marvelous duel of diva and dunce performed by Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway. So the news that its author, Lauren Weisberger, is writing a sequel didn't exactly produce a Rachel Zoe "I die!" moment. It's not that fashion has retracted its claws in the decade since Ms. Weisberger, a former assistant to Anna Wintour, published her first book, but the ground is well scored. And a sequel about an industry that is all about sequels seems almost punishment for our sins. On Monday, the Council of Fashion Designers of America will hand out awards for achievement in design and general fabulousness. There has been some grumbling about the same-old nature of the C.F.D.A. awards, the sameness of the nominees, though I recall people making the same complaint in the 1990s. So what else is new? The other day, Thursday, a beautiful day in New York, I was walking down Fifth Avenue and thinking that the industry has overlooked a serious challenger in the accessories-design category: the shopping-bag maker. Pay attention the next time you are out to the number of people toting or cradling shopping bags with the air of an Hermès stakeholder. These bags are not the big sloppy paper sacks you typically get at department stores. Rather, they are pert, sharply creased models in heavy stock. Often they have grosgrain ribbons or twisted raffia for handles, and they sport not merely the name of the designer or store, but also stripes, polka dots, bright colors. They are rich with invitation and meaning ("I bought a cookie at Ladurée!"), yet, as we know, are worthless. Nonetheless, amid the late-spring novelties (the newness, for instance, of silky but tailored shorts), I sensed that for many people, the fashionable paper bag did the work of the genius designer bag. To be sure, creamy shopping bags have been around for a while - they are an extension of a branded world - but they clearly signify something to people. The upscale paper bag also seems to function as a surrogate, as in "This'll do." Near 61st Street I saw a woman waiting for the light to change. She had on a gray suit, and in one hand was a tote, the other a crisp polka-dot bag. A gust of wind caught her dark hair, making a landing strip of her part. When I reached the corner I glanced into her bag and - you guessed it - it was empty. As I said, the brightest summer fashion is a pair of softly tailored shorts. They slightly hint of lingerie, or a chorus line. They look great with a camisole or a neat blazer.