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WOMEN’S FALL FASHIONS : Anything Goes : Rebecca De Mornay in an Eclectic Selection of Fall Styles

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Bettijane Levine is The Times' fashion editor.

Short, long, wide, narrow, bright, dull, fitted, loose. They’re all in style for fall, marking something of a turning point in the history of fashion. This is the first season in memory when absolutely anything goes, when designers offer clothes in such a variety of shapes and lengths that women can choose all the looks they like rather than what they’re told is in .

It’s also a season in which no certain style or color is more “right” than any other. The length question has resolved itself: Short looks perky, long looks languid, and either can look great. Those who want to stay in the mainstream will hedge their bets with knee-length skirts. Or they will wear pants, which can be wide and graceful or as narrow as leggings. Color? There are beautiful blacks, browns and taupes. But there are also screaming scarlets, great grapes, seedy mustards and grass greens--shades so zingy they seem to set off sirens. Even designers of sedate, conservative clothes have energized their collections with these vibrant colors as if to celebrate the confidence of the women who will wear them. Actress Rebecca De Mornay is one of those very independent souls who never takes fashion dictation. She has grown into a style of her own, she says, or rather into a number of styles, to accompany what she calls her “many moods and many faces.” You’ve seen her in “Risky Business,” “Runaway Train,” “The Trip to Bountiful,” “Testament” and the recent remake of “And God Created Woman.” In her next film, a comedy called “Feds,” she plays a naive Marine whose heart is set on becoming an FBI agent. De Mornay’s fashion flair is as eclectic as her talents. She can play it tough in a black leather motorcycle suit by Jean Paul Gaultier, fragile in an exquisite fitted jacket by Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel or sporty in black wool jodhpurs by Genny. She wears her hair up, down, straight or curly, depending on her mood, her outfit or her role. In fact, she played the quintessential dumb blonde in a recent stage production of Garson Kanin’s classic “Born Yesterday” at the Pasadena Playhouse. “Clothes always help define any role, personal or professional,” the actress says. Fashion for De Mornay, as for most modern women, is another helpful component in putting together life’s beautiful puzzle.

Makeup: George Newell; hair: Serena Radealli/Cloutier; stylist: Claude Deloffre; assistant stylist: Laurence Matisse; location courtesy of Legend Locations.

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