When most folks think of costumes this...

When most folks think of costumes this time of year, they think of Santa Claus. But then there are Rashida and Kidada Jones (Quincy’s kids). They recently paid a visit to the Kids in Costume shop on Melrose Avenue and came away outfitted as a harlequin and a ballerina, respectively. Wanda Fudge, who owns the shop, says she designed the outfits for the children’s grammar school holiday programs. But theirs aren’t the outfits in most popular demand this season, Fudge reports. The big seller, especially among girls ages 4 through 6, is a pair of Jean Harlow-style mules trimmed in marabou, to wear with a matching robe.

Hairy tale: It seems that Claudette Colbert, the co-star of “Aren’t We All” (with Rex Harrison) met Deborah Mullowney of TV’s “Capitol” show and was impressed by her haircut. So Colbert called Mullowney on the “Capitol” set to get more details and left a message. But Mullowney never answered, “thinking it was a prank,” says Sheryl Feuerstein, speaking for Mullowney. It wasn’t until Colbert called again, got the name of Mullowney’s stylist, Mickey Song, and kept an appointment with him at Tovar that Mullowney got the message.

Paul Newman, take your salad dressing and move over. . . . Fashion designers are invading supermarket shelves. Spotted in the North Hollywood Gelson’s, and available in other Southland markets, are frozen tofu desserts by Gloria Vanderbilt and paper towels and napkins by Diane Von Furstenberg. “People’s identity with fashion and labels has been applied to food as well,” said Allan Scharn, director of purchasing at Gelson’s. Are Gloria and Diane selling as well as Paul? Could be too soon to tell. “When a product is a quality one, it will sustain sales for an indefinite period,” commented Scharn, who explained that the designers’ products had been on shelves for only a few months. What’s next? Gucci croissants?

‘Customers come up to our skin-care analysts asking where to buy their uniforms.” This, we hear from Mary Ann Diorio of Prescriptives cosmetics company, is the public’s reaction to the new uniform that the company’s sales personnel wear on the job in cosmetic departments around the country. Styled by New York designer Mary Ann Restivo, the uniform is nothing more than a gray, silky jacket with modified kimono sleeves. “We told Mary Ann we needed something easy to wear and machine washable,” Diorio says. The jacket, issued to employees by the company without charge, is meant to be worn over any classic-styled outfit in black and white from the wearer’s personal wardrobe.

Nike is thinking small these days. Their newest addition is athletic shoes for infants, designed so that baby can wear the same look as mom and dad. The Baby Jordan, for example, comes in the same colors and styling as the Air Jordan, the Nike basketball shoe endorsed by Chicago Bulls star Michael Jordan. Other styles (there are 10 in all--made in leather, canvas or nylon) have names like Baby Dunk, Infantry, Rug Shark, Scoots, Baby Saddle. They’ll all hit toddler shops in January.

And the winners were: Elaine Kim, Ricardo Perdomo, Estevan Ramos, Isa Reichbart and Dorothy Szeto. The five students were selected by the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising and are about to be whisked away to Paris to compete in the “Concours des Jeunes Createurs de Mode” Tuesday. Students from eight countries--including Japan, Germany and the Philippines--will be competing for 15,000 francs ($1,176), a one-year scholarship to a Parisian fashion school and gobs of other prizes from sponsors Air France, the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Journal and the Seiko Brothers. Judges include such famous fashion names as Sonia Rykiel, Marc Bohan, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac and Emmanuelle Khanh. Bon chance to our five future haute couturiers!

Moms,eat your hearts out. Young Emmanuel Lewis of the TV series “Webster” took his mom shopping in style the other day. And after he spent $550 on a cashmere-and-lame sweater for her at the L’Aspect boutique in the Beverly Center (to go with a pair of matching, tall, suede boots from another store), he told Edward Alvarez of L’Aspect that he wasn’t Christmas shopping. “He said it’s just that his mom’s really neat, and he was taking her on a shopping spree,” Alvarez recalls.