RUNWAY TO REALITY : Something New Under the Sun

Paris designer Claude Montana’s spring 1991 collection was filled with stylish dresses, including the short and simple sun dress pictured here.

He showed it with polka-dot gloves and a sheer, starched-looking babushka tied under the chin. The dress is cotton pique, $795, and available in black or white at I. Magnin, Beverly Hills, later this month. The Montana boutique in Beverly Hills will carry it in white, orange and pink. The accessories were made for Montana’s runway show and aren’t available in stores.

New York-based Nicole Miller designed a similar look for her spring collection. She cut a lower neckline and used dressy four-ply rayon crepe. Her colors are warm pastel shades of apple green, tangerine and fuchsia.

The dress, $255, will be carried in several boutiques, including Ice at the Beverly Center, Kanji on Melrose Avenue and Emmeline in Pasadena, in late March.

The babushka is a home sewing project that requires a yard of petticoat netting folded into a triangle shape and trimmed with about three yards of satin ribbon.