Fashion 87 : Trend-Setters Reveal What’s Hot for Summer of ’87

We’ll wear “monokinis,” eat meatloaf sandwiches and search for something real . Sound like a plan? We’ll ponder the surfer, the sequel and Suzuki Samurai. We’ll see denim miniskirts most everywhere.

Each summer presents a new set of escapes, diversions and answers to the question: “What’s hot?”

As this round begins, Fashion87 asked the trend watchers what temporal pleasures will likely take hold. Their verdict: long hair, little-girl chic and the craving to drive a convertible.

In other words, we need fun.

“Whenever the political going gets mean and nasty, the fun quotient goes up,” says Jerry McGee, managing director of the L.A. office of Ogilvy & Mather Inc., a marketing and advertising firm. “We have huge problems overseas with the dollar. A big political scandal. We have no good news, and everyone says: ‘Let’s just have some fun.’ ”

To that end, we’ll be dining Caribbean at places like Cha Cha Cha, 656 N. Virgil Ave., Los Angeles, or noshing late-night comfort foods. The neon-lit Kate Mantilini, 9101 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, and the ‘50s diner Ed Debevic’s, 134 N. La Cienega, Beverly Hills, are newest of the hot for late night.

And forget lightweight nouvelle cuisine--the demand is for meatloaf. “On Wonder bread,” says Mantilini general manager Mark Weinstein. “We serve it with mayonnaise, sweet pickles, lettuce and tomato.” Mantilini’s sandwich is $5.50; Debevic’s, $3.85.

At the Ivy, 113 N. Robertson Blvd., Los Angeles, last year’s dud is this summer’s desired entree: grilled tuna and herbal iced tea--not Perrier. Chefs are coining names for all this plain-Jane cooking. Michel Richard of Citrus, 6703 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, calls it “healthy country food.”

Despite these caloric heights, the hottest cosmetic surgery--”liposuction”--indicates fat remains the enemy.

“People who look absolutely normal are not only clamoring to have fat suctioned out, but they’re concerned about areas that are concealed from the rest of the world--the inside of the knees, ankles, the so-called love handles,” USC clinical professor of surgery John Goin says.

He calls liposuction “the coming thing”--it has already surpassed breast augmentation and face lifts in nationwide popularity. But he cautions it’s not without risks and to rely on a board-certified plastic surgeon for the procedure.

As for a less drastic route to thinness--exercise--the biggest crowds at the fitness club will be hovering near the cardiovascular equipment: treadmills, rowing-, skiing- and stair-climbing machines, says Nanette Pattee Francini, executive vice president of Sports Connection and Sport Club/LA. “They’re all great for burning fat.”

Many bodies will squeeze into the “monokini”--a two-piece suit connected to make a one-piece--which industry-watchers say is the fastest selling suit this season. L.A.-based swimwear designer Anne Cole traces the trend to last year’s bikini revival.

“Not all women can wear the bikini,” she says. “The monokini is the newest shape to bridge the gap.”

Rubberized swimsuits will take to the beach, hinting at a surfer in wet suit.

In fact, anything that says surfer will suffice, from cartoon surfer T-shirts and tank tops to beach lines, such as Surf Fetish, Maui & Sons and Gotcha. Baggy jams will shorten to mid-thigh by summer’s end, Gotcha president Michael Tomson predicts.

“Surfing, for some reason, is the chic thing to do--internationally,” adds Paul Holmes, editor of Surfer magazine, the San Juan Capistrano-based publication, which experienced a 30% increase in subscribers in the past year. The June issue was a record 204 pages.

Holmes says the in surfer will use a tri-fin, five-pound board--preferably covered with decals.

“Because the whole industry is so buoyant, more and more surfers are being sponsored by surf companies. They’re plastering their boards with their sponsors’ logos--like race car drivers,” he says.

Proof the fad isn’t fading yet: Surfer bars are spreading to New York. The Big Kahuna in Manhattan, which opened in January, has 20-foot-high fiberglass waves, surfboard tables, sharks in a tank and sand on the floor.

“The whole sensibility of surfing is very attractive--particularly in New York, where you can’t do it,” says owner Michael Weinstein, president of Ark Restaurants Corp., which runs several theme eateries in New York.

Off the beach and on the street, look for bare shoulders, midriffs, backs and knees. Women’s fashion takes two tacks: One is gauzy-flouncy--a style some call a peasant-turned-St.Tropez. A second, tighter theme is based on the slinky, stretchy tank dress.

For evening, “bustiers with a pouf at the bottom”--as served up by designers Christian La Croix or Azzedine Alaia--are the rage among Maxfield’s show business-based clientele, owner Tommy Perse says.

Tresses also take a romantic turn, with a long square shag among the sought-after styles, stylist Allen Edwards says.

At the box office, think sequel. The title mentioned most for smash status is “Beverly Hills Cop II”--but there’s also “Superman IV,” “Jaws--The Revenge,” and a new James Bond thriller called “The Living Daylights.”

Art Murphy, film industry analyst for Daily Variety, says the public isn’t saturated on any of these subjects. He adds none of them is a “fast-turn-over knockoff” film--meaning the sequels are good enough to take seriously.

For the esoteric set, crystal healing, extraterrestrials and transchanneling will be summer pursuits, Bodhi Tree Bookstore co-owner Stan Madson says. The more earthbound will be reading Sue Miller’s “The Good Mother” or John Le Carre’s “The Perfect Spy” in paperback at the beach, Doug Dutton of Dutton’s Brentwood bookstore reports. Minds also will turn to politics. Dutton says he gets inquiries “every hour” for a chronology of the Iran- contra affair, which he says Warner Books will publish later this summer. He predicts many beach-goers will follow the hearings by transistor radio, “then cool off in the Pacific Ocean during the two-hour lunch breaks.”

Convertible sales, as in recent years, will peak in summer, says automotic industry analyst Chris Cedergren of J.D. Power & Associates, a marketing research firm. He says models by BMW and Suzuki will be the warm-weather favorites.

The Honda scooter will continue its surge, motorcycle analyst Bruce Johnson of J.D. Power says, adding that for the serious biker: “Harley Davidson is becoming the bike to own.”

The image people want, Johnson says, is “part Bruce Springsteen, part Bruce Willis. A little bad boy, but still the traditional values.”

Other fast-moving summer props: camcorders (a lightweight video camera and recorder combined), portable compact disc players and hand-held TVs, says Allan Schlosser of the Washington-based Electronic Industries Assn.

Yet consumers won’t bite into every new high-tech toy. McGee at Ogilvy & Mather says we’re tired of mass-market logos and status symbols. We seek old-fashioned quality, a personal touch: The hand car wash. The ma-and-pa store. The rubber-toe Converse sneaker.

“We’ve seen the future, and everyone said: ‘It’s cold. It’s “Blade Runner.” Let’s go back and jump into the ‘50s and ‘60s,’ ” McGee says.

Retailers, such as Hammacher Schlemmer and Malibu Art & Design, find waning interest in black, slick furnishings and a renewed hankering for wood--from beach umbrellas to the slatted, folding, Adirondack lawn chair, which many folks are taking indoors. The most popular gadget lately at Malibu Art & Design is the currency converter for overseas travel, owner Barbara Goldman says.

“Last year, travel came to a total halt because of terrorism,” she says. “But that worry is past.”

And if ’86 was the summer to rediscover Montana or Wyoming, this year it’s Africa and Nepal.

“African safaris are so hot this year, you can’t even make reservations anymore. They’re gone,” says Veronica Jaram, agent at All About Travel in West Los Angeles. She mentions the Masai Mara Game Reserve and Mount Kenya Safari Club as favored destinations.

Tour operator Eve Senn, vice president of L.A.-based Abercrombie & Kent, says safari requests tripled this year with her firm. Plans to trek in Nepal doubled. For Nepal, she says, travelers prefer the Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge, “which is the place you’re most likely to see the royal Bengal tiger.”

Anything Australian--clothes, accent or a stay at the Regent Hotel in Sydney--is hot.

But as for what’s hottest in summer pursuits--you’ll never get a consensus. Socialite Joan Agajanian Quinn insists it’s a trip to Berlin, where several of her artist friends have shows this summer. Designer Gregory Poe says it’s a trip to Tonga. That’s where he plans to build a hut. Poe also plans to stay home in Los Angeles a lot.

“I’m sitting on my new Exercycle. My feet are on my bench-press, and I couldn’t be happier,” he says by phone. “All my really close friends don’t go out anymore. Everyone’s going home.”

So “cocooning”--getting domestic--may be a trend that’s yet to peak.

Artist David Hockney, for one, has been painting blue swirls in his home swimming pool. And Wallis Annenberg of Beverly Hills, confesses: “I just canceled my walking tour of Sussex. To me, staying home this summer is definitely the in thing. The stimulating people are all here.”