Building a Following : Fabrikant Constructs His Styles With an Architect’s Flair

Steven Fabrikant has the indelicate habit of equating women with buildings. Fashion design, the 34-year-old says, “is not much different from doing a high-rise. They’re both dealing with the same sort of proportions.”

The slim New Yorker in a skinny tie stood on Wilshire Boulevard pointing to various office towers. Then he turned to a model wearing one of his knits: “Now doesn’t that look like a building?”

Not the usual designer chat.

But Fabrikant isn’t about to shed his roots. He trained as an architect in New York and London, and he continues to talk that way, despite his turn toward fashion.

When questioned about the range of his knits, he reasoned: “Some people like ranch houses, and some like apartments. You have all kinds of tastes.”

But you would almost certainly need a taste for power dressing--or boldness--to seek out a Fabrikant. The designer’s consistent message is geometric pattern, primary color and a hint of the macho , inverted-triangle silhouette. He has no plans to shed shoulder pads.

Fabrikant’s 3-year-old, New York-based business has attracted such high-visibility clients as TV newscasters Jane Pauley, Pat Mitchell and Faith Daniels. “Women like to give speeches in my dresses,” he said during a trunk show of his fall designs at Neiman-Marcus, Beverly Hills. “It is a power look. I guess if you go in front of the masses, you have to look good.”

Fabrikant, raised in Rio de Janeiro and later New York City (where he learned fashion through his parents’ sportswear firm), said he chose knits as his medium because of the control they offer, starting with a piece of

yarn.

He categorizes his work, which often makes unexpected use of color blocks and pattern, as an alternative to classic designer dressing. Fabrikant’s hand-loomed skirts, tunics and knit pants are priced from about $400, with his cashmere designs exceeding

$1,000.

Though Fabrikant can barely utter a word about clothes without venturing into architecture, he’s clear about the advantages of his chosen career.

In fashion, he says, “you do have immediate satisfaction. Designing a house can be a year-or-two cycle.”