Stylish Raisa Cancels Fashion House Visits

The elegant Raisa Gorbachev, dressed in a stylishly gathered navy raincoat, arrived in style-conscious Italy today but with her schedule ruthlessly cut--planned visits to fashion ateliers and luxury boutiques are out.

Ten days before Raisa, dubbed “The Queen of Kremlin Chic” by Italian newspapers, landed with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev for a three-day visit, KGB security men checked out the workshop of Roman master tailor Valentino at her request.

But Soviet officials said today that Raisa, who has been criticized at home for her taste in Cartier jewels and fur coats, will not after all have time to see Valentino’s latest creations--partly inspired by traditional Russian costumes.

“We’d prepared a showing 45 minutes long, because the Soviets told us Raisa did not have much time. Just 15 girls, a bit of ready-to-wear and a bit of haute couture, “ a disappointed Valentino spokesman said.

Plans for shopping sprees in the luxurious boutiques of Rome’s Via Condotti at the foot of the Spanish Steps have also been abandoned, as well as a quick cocktail at the street’s famous 18th-Century Caffe Greco.

Instead she will, without her husband, open an exhibition on “Art and Science Under Perestroika” and fly, again without Gorbachev, to the Sicilian town of Messina where she will lay a wreath for the 200,000 victims of a 1908 earthquake. She will be thanked for the role sailors from the Russian imperial navy played helping survivors in the devastated city.

Five of Italy’s most prominent political wives will accompany Raisa at different times during her visit, foremost among them Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti’s discreet wife Livia, a less familiar figure to Italians than Raisa herself.