California Designers Bare Their Collections : Lace, Glittery Fabrics and Pastels Highlight the Options in Swimwear for Summer of ’86

Picture Krystle Carrington wearing one of those decollete Grand Entrance dresses that drapes across the body showing off those broad shoulders and that tiny waist. Now cut off the skirt and sleeves, and you’ll have an idea of what’s in store for some swimmers next year.

Not surprisingly, Los Angeles designer Brenda Welch, owner of Oooh Can’t Wait! swimwear, calls these draped wonders her “Linda Evans suits.” In black or white, they feature elaborate draped torsos with broad, beaded shoulder panels. And they simply slide across the wearer’s buttocks like the shortest, tightest miniskirt. (The designer suggests women wear G-strings underneath. She also advises women against swimming in them. “They’re sun suits,” she says.)

If last summer was the year of the racy tank suit, with a nod to the Olympics, next summer won’t be quite so practical for water sports. California designers who presented their spring ’86 collections last week at the California Mart were in a glamorous mood. Everything from lace and rhinestones to fringe and seashells was used to adorn bikinis and maillots, which continue to be cut radically high on the legs and seem to have more attention-getting details at the back than the front.

They may not exactly be the kind of suits you would want to wear while swimming laps, but they are playful and glitzy and fun.

Gone are last summer’s graffiti and alphabet prints, and back are trusty florals, bigger and more exotic than ever. Tiger lilies and hibiscus are the botanical favorites across the board, although palm trees and grape clusters (very Carmen Miranda) are not far behind.

Neon brights have been replaced by softer sherbet colors such as strawberry, mint and lemon.

The newest novelties are: swimsuits with Madonna written all over them--meaning lace and lots of it, deftly applied to bikinis and maillots; pony-print suits with fringe a la Dale Evans; demure nauticals, and animal-print chamois treatments.

Then there are Cole of California’s lame or “quicksilver” tanks, which only look impractical. The fabric is actually a metallic printed tricot (chlorine tested and very swimmable, designer Linda Scalbom says), which gives an iridescent effect. In the sun, they’ll shine like jewels.