If you follow the fashion industry at all, you know that designers release their new collections according to seasons -- Fall '07, Spring '08, etc. Makes sense, right? You need a different wardrobe in April than you do in November. However, according to this article in the Wall Street Journal, the days when people swapped out their wardrobes with every change of season may be long gone.

Liz Claiborne Inc, Target, Kohls and JC Penny are all following the trend -- shifting the way they sell clothes, so they have items on the rack that customers need "month to month, instead of season to season."

So what gives?

Apparently part of the reason is that these days, we spend so much time inside that there's no longer a need for the kind of big, bulky clothing our parents used to keep warm during the colder months. But the primary reason for this growing shift away from conventional season-to-season design is said to be something more...fundamental.

In short, it's due to climate change. According to Radley Horton, Columbia University climatologist, "There are less extreme differences between seasons." In fact, Spring comes 7 to 10 days earlier than it used to, fall is a week later than it was in decades past, and the months in between are growing milder -- meaning, that the chore of overhauling your wardrobe ever 3-4 months is quickly becoming unnecessary.

Who knows, maybe this means you don't have to stop wearing white just because Labor Day has come and gone.