Richard Pryor’s wife, Debbie, stopped off at...

Richard Pryor’s wife, Debbie, stopped off at the Plunket-Keys shop on Sunset Boulevard and asked in-house designer David Keys to style a black velvet dress with a jeweled bolero jacket for her. “She said she wanted it for the premiere of ‘Rocky IV’ ” Wednesday, Keys tells Listen. Pryor had her heart set on a gold leather suit, Keys says. “But the skirt didn’t fit, and we couldn’t have it altered in time.” Other high-profile shoppers recently seen at the store include Alana Stewart, who bought a black taffeta gown with a train for a Joan Collins dinner party, and Susan George, who chose a strapless, white silk outfit with white leather trim for a bash at the Hard Rock Cafe, Keys says.

Speaking of “Rocky IV”: you can expect to see Apollo Creed (played by Carl Weathers) in some of his fanciest duds yet. Creed will be outfitted in designs by tailor Giacomo Trabalza, who also designs for Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jack Valenti and Ricardo Montalban. Weathers describes Trabalza as “a true, Old World artisan who will go to any degree to make his customers feel good about the clothes he designs for them.” Others must think Weathers feels really good in his wardrobe too, as he was named to a 1985 “Best Casually Dressed” list compiled by Los Angeles television and motion picture fashion consultants.

Next time you see a nurse sporting a particularly stylish uniform, consider that the garment may be helping to put another nurse through school. All of Christopher Norris’ (she used to play nurse Gloria Brancusi on TV’s “Trapper John M.D.”) royalties from her line of nurses uniforms are going to the National Student Nurses’ Assn. Though the actress left “Trapper” after six seasons to pursue other interests, she’s continuing her Norris label, made by New York’s Crest Uniform Co. The earnings from the line’s royalties are currently large enough to support two full scholarships.

We thought Listen had seen it all this season--what with the Paris showings and the New York openings. But the Geneva Fashion Summit may get Listen’s Style Event of the Season award. Given the news blackout, apparel was covered as extensively as talk about human rights and arms reduction. Among other things, Listen was thrilled at comments made by Paul C. Warnke, chief U.S. arms negotiator in 1977-78 (“If Nancy Reagan and Raisa Gorbachev can get together and view one another as mothers and as people interested in style, it can make a big difference in the public’s perception.”) and Wellesley College Soviet expert Nina Tumarkin (“People somehow assume that if Raisa Gorbachev wears Chanel No. 5, she’s a Democrat. It’s preposterous.”). But our favorite quote came from Larry Speakes, President Reagan’s spokesman, who was asked at a briefing if Reagan was wearing Kennedy-style long underwear. “No, he wasn’t,” Speakes reportedly replied. “I think the President was in his customary underwear.”

Michael Jackson’s friends are giving him ideas. He saw one of them wearing an antique watch with a modern gold-and-sterling-silver watch band by Arlene Altman and had to have one. We hear from Carol Chase of the Arlene Altman boutique that Jackson sent his secretary into the Rodeo Drive store to do the shopping. “I think the watch was a gift,” Chase says. Later, she adds, Jackson’s secretary returned and bought a pair of sterling-silver link bracelets.

As fashion turns its style clocks back to the ‘60s and starts talking hip-huggers and love beads, the king of pop-art posters, Peter Max, surfaces again--this time with haute mod footwear. Last spring, after a visit to the high-toned di Fiori shoe salon in Beverly Hills, Max and di Fiori’s designer Orson Mozes collaborated on the ultimate wearable art. Using Mozes’ white cabretta leather boots as his canvas, Max turned them into neo-psychedelia, hand-signed of course. He created three unmatched but related pairs, each for sale at $10,000 per pair. One Max boot is on display in the di Fiori salon, the rest are under lock and key. By the way, only Sizes 7 1/2, 8 and 8 1/2 need inquire.

When did modern sportswear begin? John Weitz provided some of the answers at a presentation of his designs from the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s at Parsons Exhibition Center in New York this week. The show’s program read: “There once was a short, sweet period right after World War II, when America’s young fashion designers were free of all influences except those that concerned life in the U.S.A. They made women’s fashions by ‘stealing’ from Army and Navy surplus clothes, cowboy gear and all sorts of menswear, and they created that functional and witty new category of clothes known as sportswear . . . .” Asked to elaborate on that period, the ever-witty Weitz told Listen: “We were having a good time. We didn’t have to worry every time somebody burped in Paris or Milan.”

E.G. Smith really knows how to sock it to you. The 2-year-old hosiery company, which brought status down to earth with its generously sized, signature cotton socks, has come up with a limited-edition sock-shopping bag for Christmas, which customers receive when they buy two pairs at retail. The bag is decorated with an illustration, instructions on how to change your mood by wearing socks (“1. Get in the mood. 2. Insert feet lengthwise separately. 3. Repeat 1 and 2 as needed.”), the Smith name and the message “Secure Men Invite Turned Heads.” Owner Eric Smith tells Listen that you can use the socks bag for your sack lunch once you get it home.

‘If you need anything, just whistle” has taken on new meaning at Harry Winston in New York. The famed jeweler is featuring a group of gold whistles encrusted with precious stones and hung on silk cords in its latest catalogue. According to Winston’s Gabriella Lorenzotti, these traffic-stopping whistles have been sold to sports celebrities, a few noble names and one majorette shopper who bought five. You can blow your own jewelry budget (the whistles start at $2,200) by placing an order with Harry Winston at (212) 245-2000.

The gap created when Halston stopped doing his ready-to-wear collection a few seasons ago may be filled in the spring. Bill Dugan, Halston’s executive design assistant for 12 years, is designing his first 24-piece line under his own W.S. Dugan label, which will debut for spring, 1986. The line, which will be available at I. Magnin in Beverly Hills, is reminiscent of the spare simplicity and fluid shapes that were Halston’s hallmarks. “He was the best of teachers, and his influence is still evident all over the market today,” says Dugan, who adds that three of Halston’s best dressmakers are helping him. Helping Dugan show the clothes to prospective buyers is former Halston model-turned-singer Nancy North. She is also known as Mrs. Dugan.

A bag of fashion tricks was the start of something big. Each white plastic bag, priced at $5, contained the identical collection of fabric, trims, pearl buttons, shoulder pads and sundry sewing materials. And each student at L.A. Trade Tech who bought one was asked to make a garment for the upper part of the body using only the bag’s contents. The school’s Joyce Gale, a fashion-design instructor, says she got the idea after watching a TV documentary about a similar “build a machine” contest held at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. To show how boundless the imagination can be, entries included jackets of every shape and size, shirts, tunics, even a minidress. And the winners were: Dong Leao and Elizabeth Hoxie, who tied for first prize; Esther Scott, second prize, and Tran Hong, third.