Showing skin; Discreet yet disarming.

Byline: Julia Reed

On the front cover of my old Bantam edition of Anna Karenina, there is a portrait of a woman named S. M. Botkina wearing a choker of several strands of pearls and holding a small black dog. It is meant to evoke the irresistible Anna, of course, and it does in all her exotic, dark-haired, nineteenth-century glory. The dress itself, though, could well have come from the current spring collections. The area outlining the neckline is raised and gathered into what may be roses, an effect found in Marc Jacobs's swingy silk dresses. It is quietly embroidered in pale-gold sequins with bits of tulle, much like one of the stunning evening gowns shown by Alexander McQueen. And although Anna was known for "her full shoulders and bosom, which looked carved out of ivory," the broad, square neckline is that of Jacobs and McQueen (as well as Narciso Rodriguez, among others), showing far more shoulder than bosom.

The thing about a neckline that showcases the expanse from clavicle to clavicle but little or no cleavage is that there isn't any titillating-or vulgar (think a post-pregnancy Britney Spears out on the town)-bosom to draw the eye away from the actual chest. This is not the heaving, waist-cinched look of Scarlett O'Hara; it cannot be correctly called decolletage. The new neckline is more discreet but also more alluring, as in Tolstoy's other heroine Kitty, whose lovely young throat was accentuated by a "delicious" black velvet ribbon, and whose own skin was similar to "marble."

The problem arises when our skin does not inspire comparisons to fine ivory or blemish-free marble. Russian aristocrats did not go outside uncovered much, but even most of us who have finally learned to slather our faces with a minimum SPF 15 moisturizer continue to sorely neglect our chests. My relatively long neck and broad shoulders are among my better features, so I am crazy about this neckline, but my pride was recently deflated when I looked in the mirror-hard-and realized that while my face was one color, a nice La Mer Natural 02, my chest was pink and splotchy, as though my last sunburn had ...