DESIGNERS : Women Fall for a Line by Abboud

Watch out Giorgio Armani and Gianni Versace, New York designer Joseph Abboud has a toehold in Hollywood.

Michele Lee and Linda Gray attended the recent show of his women’s wear collection at Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills.

Afterward in the designer salon, Gray was so eager to try a brocade Nehru-style jacket, she didn’t wait for a dressing room.

She slipped it over her sleeveless white blouse and held up the coordinated silk-Jacquard pants for a long, critical look in the mirror.

“She only gets more beautiful,” says the designer, who claims to have no muse--not even his wife or baby daughter. But Gray and Diane Sawyer are on his A-list.

“I admire women in their 30s, 40s and 50s,” he says. “It’s a woman’s experiences that make her intriguing.”

His experiences include studies at the Sorbonne (he has a teaching degree in comparative literature) and a stint at Polo/Ralph Lauren as associate director of menswear design.

He left Lauren, he says, “because I had a different point of view. I wanted a sexier American--not so Greenwich, not so Ivy League.”

Using a sexier concept for his own menswear has earned him three prestigious titles, including 1990 designer of the year from the Council of Fashion Designers of America.

Last year was definitely a winner for Abboud. He presented his men’s collection in Milan and, as a result, the clothing is now sold in European stores.

Later this year, three major London department stores will join the list.

His fall women’s collection is typically Abboud: low-key, impeccably tailored--and expensive. At Neiman’s, jackets range from $695 to $1,200; pants, blouses and sweaters from $400 to $800.