IN REVIEW / DESIGNERS : Rebuilding a Glamour Dynasty

Last season Nolan Miller, for nine years the costume designer for “Dynasty,” branched out with a signature collection of eveningwear that had glamour written all over it.

But after a false start in which the designer candidly admits some items “were not wearable,” the Nolan Miller Couture collection is back. At a recent personal appearance at Saks, first-day sales were brisk on outfits ranging from $800 to $6,000.

This collection also focuses on evening wear and features silk pajamas, chiffon gowns with matching capes and beaded evening dresses--the sort of style Miller is known for on television. However, this is not a rehash of the “Dynasty”-inspired collection introduced with Miller’s approval, and great hoopla, four years ago. That was pulled from store shelves a short time later.

“It was a mess,” he reflects of the licensing deal. He took advantage of the escape clause in his contract, he explains, after one local department store buyer called to tell him how disappointed the store was and that the clothes would have to be “hidden somewhere on the sales floor.”

Although he has been more attuned to the individual needs of the Hollywood stars he has dressed over the last 30 or so years--Lana Turner, Joan Collins, Barbara Stanwyck, Linda Evans--Miller believes he is not out of touch with non-celebrity women.

“When you get out and start designing for the so-called ordinary woman, you find she wants to be glamorous just like the stars,” he says. “She also has many of the same fit problems.”

Although Miller’s name may be new to many, the designer has been involved in women’s wear design for most of his 55 years.

Miller entered fashion after graduating from the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, where he had studied costume design. Working in a local flower shop, he met the then-struggling writer/producer Aaron Spelling, who recruited him to do clothes for guest stars on “The June Allyson Show” and “The Dick Powell Show.”