Sales or style? Debate over sleeveless dresses in winter

The look is chic and sexy on the runway, but designer collections don't always translate in the face of winter's blustering reality.

A Wall Street Journal article is reigniting the debate over designers insisting on sleeveless dresses, even in the dead of winter. It's a design war that has fashion houses clashing with buyers over what's more important -- sales or style?

"I think designers, most of them are men, do not wear dresses, so they don't have the problem of freezing in the middle of the winter or dealing with imperfect arms," New York City boutique owner Yuta Powell said to CBS News correspondent Gigi Stone Woods.

Powell said while there are plenty of options to layer and cover up, the burden shouldn't always be on the buyer. So she has demanded designers add sleeves to their dresses.

"I am a store owner who buys, pays and needs to sell it. ... There's no excuse not to consider the comfort of the woman," Powell said.

Or buying power. The women's dress market is a $6 billion a year industry. Fashion editors say most of those dresses are sleeveless.

"I think that the problem of with there not being a lot of long sleeve dresses out there has gotten progressively worse. Fabrics are becoming more expensive so designers aren't investing as much money and buying the stuff, so we are seeing them chopping the sleeves off," ELLE.com fashion editor Ruthie Friedlander said.

"I don't know why everybody finds this such a problem because I don't find it a problem," designer Nicole Miller said.

Miller, whose fashion empire brings in $650 million in annual sales, insists she's been listening.

"I feel like I really accommodate all those issues for my customer and during winter we make lots of sleeves," Miller said.

Miller admits, however, there's a limit to what she's willing to put sleeves on.

"I think it's really hard to design a sexy evening dress with a sleeve," Miller said.

Powell agrees sleeves can be costly and constricting, but is firm with designers unwilling to collaborate.

"I threaten them with a smile, but it is a logic. It is a business, and they are designing to sell, not to keep it in the archives," Powell said. "I buy it, not to keep it in the stock room, but to sell it to a customer and hopefully make the woman as pretty as she can be."

Fall Fashion Week in New York is less than one month away and designers are promising there will be more sleeved options for next year.