DESIGNERS : David Hayes Knows How to Treat a Lady

Success doesn’t always please Los Angeles designer David Hayes. Take a bow-trimmed black dress from his 1990 fall collection that “fit everyone and sold and sold.”

It was such a hit, store buyers asked him to do another this year. But Hayes declined.

For 15 years, he has been quietly and steadily attracting a following that includes Audrey Hepburn and Sophia Loren, along with top-notch stores like I. Magnin, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor and the Martha boutique in New York.

Now Hayes has decided to do some things his way.

His specialty has always been beautifully tailored, ladylike suits and dresses for women who “won’t spend $4,000 on a suit.” His fall collection, shown this week at I. Magnin, Wilshire, features sophisticated suits--including solids, plaids and checks for daytime and rhinestone, sequined and fur-trimmed combinations for evening--priced from $900 to $1,200.

Dresses, which range from a slimming chalk-striped coat style to a flirty-skirted rhinestone-sprinkled cocktail number, cost $600 to $900.

Evening gowns, which are slightly more expensive, are an addition to his repertoire and were designed, he says, in response to store requests--proving he will respond favorably if he likes an idea.

Despite his do-it-my-way attitude, his clothes continue to be made the old-fashioned way, with fine fabrics, linings and expensive buttons.

Not surprisingly, he is “crazy about Princess Di. No matter what she wears, she always looks like a lady.”

As for trends, he believes pretty clothes are the wave of the future.

“It’s time to stop trying to make women look ugly, hard and mean,” he says, adding that he recently told an influential New York fashion editor: “Things will get better when you guys stop thinking it’s glamorous to have a woman sitting on a motorcycle in a beaded gown with her boobs hanging out.”

It may not have won him points with her, but his ladylike customers are sure to applaud.