Oscars, plural Hooray for Hollywood: The

good, the bad and the Armanis.

P

Pants Greatly increasing our

wardrobes and our vocab-
ularies: Floods, bells, leg-
gings, biker shorts, stovepipes,
stretch, stirrup, etc.

Patriotic Ralph Lauren, you're a grand

old flag!

Pearls Mother-of-Pearls, Queen Alexandra

(1889), wrapped her neck in a string of pearls
and then some. A century later, one of
America's Royalty, Barbara Bush, did the
same — hers were designed by the king of
fabulous fakery, Detroit's own Kenneth Jay
Lane.

Queen, singular Elizabeth,

still the arbiter of
frumpiness.

dressing has become an
fashion
acceptable
trend. Today's leader of the throne: Ru
Paul, in a million dollar ad campaign for
M.A.C. Make-up.

QVC Selling thousands of everything from

Suit Watershed The '40s society look has

mops to Joan Rivers' jewels. To quote Bette
Midler, the Divine One, "Who's buying that
stuff?"

become every working woman's uniform.

Queens, plural Cross-

Ready To Wear Or, before
the name change, Pret-A-
Porter, Robert Altman's

fashion folly.

dependent on how well his perfume has
sold. YSL, Oscar and Armani's fragrances
have been highly successful, but celebs
jumping into the aroma arena have failed
Baryshnikov, Joan Collins and Cher, to
name a few.

Retailing In the past,

women's roles were clearly
defined. Stores could easily offer what the
customer needed. Today, women's
complex life styles are the retailer's
nightmare.

Picasso This time Paloma...Her fragrance,

Ribbons In the '90s, the 1790s, Empress

jewels and accessories ... all artistic
endeavors. It must be in the jeans!

Josephine asked her female guests to wear
scarlet ribbons to commemorate those who
died on the guillotine. 1990s' ribbons are
red for AIDS, pink for breast-cancer
awareness and yellow for MIA/hostage
situations.

spree on Rodeo Drive: Every woman's
dream come true.

Pink In Audrey Hepburn's film Funny Face,

the fashion editor tries to find a theme for
her next issue and declares "That's it, pink."
That's 1995: Fashionably pink!

worth a thousand words.

In Egyptian
history, transparent gowns
and loincloths were status
symbols. The poor wore coarse
linen, so the more you could see through,
the higher your social standing. Is history
repeating itself?

Pfragrance A designer's success is greatly

Pretty Woman The Julia Roberts shopping

Claudia Schiffer One picture is

Rubber-To-Wear Besides the obvious, check

out Goodyear's new designer line.

Sheerness

Smoking Cigarettes reappear in fashion

photos...Why?

Swimsuits for Ms. America Dial 1-900 ...

Tattoos Painful

and

permanent ... period!

Technicolor Returns Black is still

the color of choice.

Teeshirts Making a political

statement, acting artsy and now just plain
hip. Even Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw
discarded their dress shirts for tees on Dave's
show in '95.

Tyler On The Move Richard Tyler, Australian

designer, lands in La La Land, then the Big
Apple, then at Anne Klein and now, he's on
the move again.

Tuxedo Dressing TV's "Dynasty" (1986)

brought back black-tie dressing that had
been out for over 25 years. Ron and Nancy
helped the cause.

Left: Halston 1989 ad, '60s dress from the collection of Sandy Schreier; Rita Hayworth as Gilda; Ralph Lauren. Above: Madonna "Blonde Ambition" tour, courtesy of
the Kobal Collection; Nancy Reagan; "Dynasty" cast, 1986.