By comparison, analysts said, the battered survivors are struggling to combat dowdy images and a dwindling clientele.

Agatha Christie's Miss Marple moves with the times, staying in tweeds but shedding her dowdy image.

Catalogue companies like Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel were given credit for rehabbing furniture's dowdy image among consumers.

As today's rock concert suggests, the party is also seeking to recast itself by shedding its dowdy image as a collection of doddering Stalinists.

The trouble is that walking has never quite thrown off its dowdy image.

Although its problems are less dire than Nissan's were, it has a dowdy image, a stagnant home market and fewer obvious places to cut costs.

The merchandise, in sizes 14 to 28, also echoes the Limited's penchant for youthful sportswear, which is a departure from Lane Bryant's former dowdy image.

His selection was a clear attempt by the festival's board, which had long chafed under Karajan's conservative hand, to revitalize the festival's dowdy image.

Ms. Mooney based her forecast on a proliferation of low-heeled styles that have dispensed with the dowdy image of flats.

Even Sears is seeking to shed its dowdy image with contemporary leather upholstery from Natuzzi.