Parade of Peacocks

THE FILM: “Graffiti Bridge,” written, directed, scored by and starring Prince.

THE LOOK: This film is one protracted music video, and the costumes are formula for the genre. The men get all of the fashion glory; the women are subjugated to two roles. The bad girl (Jill Jones) wears G-strings, and black bra tops. The good girl (Ingrid Chavez) wears a dreary blue voile dress and a brown circle skirt.

Prince plays the hero in second-skin jumpsuits, a black leather jacket with a foot-long brass love sign applied to the sleeve, stiletto heels and heavy eye makeup. Musician Morris Day, making a return visit from “Purple Rain,” and his gang of ne’er-do-wells are resplendent in brilliantly colored suits, two-tone shirts and flashy ties.

THE DESIGNERS: Most of the costumes were made at Prince’s Paisley Park Studios in Minneapolis by the design team of Helen Hiatt and Jim Shearon. They produce all of Prince’s costumes for tours, music videos and films.

The exception is Jones’ wardrobe of body-revealing dresses and lingerie tops by Azzedine Alaia (available at the Alaia boutique in Beverly Hills). “Those are the only designer clothes in the film,” Hiatt said. “We didn’t want it to be a designer parade across the screen.”

While the film may not have been a parade of designer labels, it was a fast-moving fashion show. Some of the Paisley Park standouts: Day’s vivid yellow suit with huge black fret signs on the front, the black leather jackets decorated with pieces of Minnesota license plates and Jones’ gold bell-bottoms.

The half-white, half-black, form-fitting jumpsuit Prince wears during one musical number was made for him while he was writing the film and has become a staple in his wardrobe.

The one--and only--great look worn by the heroine was Pucci leggings that peeked through tattered blue jeans.

THE STORES: Many of the secondary characters were costumed from stores in New York’s East Village and stores on L.A.’s Melrose Avenue.

THE PAYOFF: Hiatt and Prince are so taken with their fashion talents that they’ve decided to create a line of ready-to-wear clothes. Unfortunately, they’re talking about watered-down versions of Prince’s stage costumes, and there’s already enough of that stuff around. The smart money would be on a book of Prince’s makeup techniques. His eye liner (which he has been known to apply himself) is perfection.