DESIGNER : Shifting Out of Neutrals, Into Fuchsia

Can a woman who is accustomed to wearing black feel right in a chrome-yellow suit?

Isaac Mizrahi, who pioneered this season’s rampant return to color, has used rose and peach as neutrals, instead of black, since he emerged on the scene three years ago. Whenever he shows his color-collision collections, as he did at I. Magnin, Beverly Hills, this week, women ask how he does it.

“If you’re worried about wearing a bright-color suit, you probably shouldn’t buy one,” he said. “Get a pair of bright-color gloves instead. Color is just one alternative.” He shows chocolate brown, forest green and royal navy as quieter options.

Mizrahi, 29, said his childhood obsession with Technicolor movies helps explain his adult attraction to colorful clothes. He remembers screen idols dressed in marigold sweaters, driving citron-green cars.

“From my first collection I imagined walking into a closet and putting all the colors together, the red, the coral, the yellow and pink,” he said. “But color isn’t for everyone. There are women who adore it and women who don’t.”

Mizrahi compared his attitude to those of Christian Lacroix in Paris and Gianni Versace in Milan, who make color the basis of their collections despite trends.

He disagrees that a bright pink jacket is unforgettable and shouldn’t be worn often.

“Wear it every day,” he said. “With a pink sweater one day, a peach-color skirt the next, a black bodysuit, a huge scarf and a pair of sunglasses; it will look different every time.”

Even with the color trend, Mizrahi conceded, “You can’t believe how much more black and taupe women buy than they buy pink and orange.” He offers a black skirt to wear with a coral jacket as one way of updating a dark wardrobe.

“But I’d rather see coral with red.” he said. “And a yellow shirt.”