IN REVIEW / DESIGNERS : He Tends to Buck the Trend

Richard Tyler is a designer who always dances to the beat of his own drum.

While the rest of the fashion world touts casual dressing, Tyler opts for elegance. As silhouettes loosen up in other collections, his are form-fitting and body enhancing.

It is this anti-Establishment approach to design that has earned the Los Angeles-based Tyler a growing reputation as the “West Coast’s Jean Paul Gautier,” the Paris designer known for classic tailoring and eccentric details.

The introduction of his fall collection of men’s and women’s tailored suits, sport coats and dresses, shown to a standing-room-only crowd in the designer’s Beverly Boulevard store last week, will hardly change that perception.

Australian-born Tyler was primarily a menswear designer, who apprenticed with Leo Granger, the tailor and outfitter to the late Australian prime minister, Sir Robert Gordon Menzies.

Tyler adapted his British tailored approach to women’s wear during his last five years in Los Angeles. He added a theatrical division to his company, Tyler Trafficante (named for himself and wife/business partner Lisa Trafficante), that produces clothing for entertainers like Rod Stewart, Elton John, Janet Jackson and Sinead O’Connor.

For fall ready-to-wear, his preoccupation with Sherlock Holmes’ Edwardian-inspired tailoring continues as a Tyler trademark reflected in long coats with cinched waists and flared hems. Many of his women’s designs play off classic English equestrian wear--skintight stirrup pants and hourglass-shaped jackets.

His three-color satin jackets and red velvet coats for men and women show the more severe side of his designs. Likewise, his black gabardine, broad-shouldered, peaked lapeled jackets with matching fitted trousers for men and coat dresses for women illustrate the designer’s more controlled design philosophy. Prices range from about $325 to $2,000.

“I am not following any trends with my collection,” states Tyler. “All I want to project is quality fabrics and well-cut clothing.”