Under Arrest for a<i> Real</i> Fashion Crime
And you thought wearing brown shoes with a black dress was a fashion crime. A transvestite theft ring--three men dressed in women’s clothing and yearning for Chanels, Armanis and Versaces--allegedly robbed several East Coast boutiques at gunpoint. They didn’t take cash; they took clothes, Philadelphia police say, and “only the best.” And they may have been supplying a vast “underground boutique” for transvestite shoppers with exacting tastes, said a Maryland police detective. The three young men, two of them from Southern California, were arrested in January as they tried to stick up a new Versace shop in Washington. They are being held without bond. And without a change of clothes for the weekend.
* THE HIGH COST OF FASHION: When it comes to outfitting models, Glamour magazine gets real. In order to prove its point, it tallied up the prices of average outfits in some popular fashion mags. The priciest was, no surprise here, Vogue, at $3,803. Elle ranked second at $2,962, followed by Harper’s Bazaar at $2,850. The only two that kept the average outfit less than $1,000 were Cosmopolitan, $618, and Glamour, $397.
* ATTENTION ALL VALS: Gotcha, the surfwear manufacturing giant, unveiled a billboard campaign this week that steers way clear of the beach. It features only a head shot of a handsome dude and the copy: “Gotcha: Clothes for Your Trip.” Gotcha will still push surf-oriented clothes in beach communities, but this new angle attempts to hook inlanders on their own turf.
* ARMANI GOES NATIVE: Le Collezioni, Giorgio Armani’s second-string line, is advertised in an eight-page insert in the March issue of National Geographic magazine. This is the first time a fashion designer has advertised in the 104-year-old media institution. An Armani spokesperson claims the “selective, sophisticated and affluent customer base of Le Collezioni closely parallels the magazine’s readership.” And it wasn’t some fast-talking media placement account director that put this one over. All advertising decisions are made in Milan, the spokesperson says. * PHOENIX FASHION: Good news for old Norma Kamali fans . . . She’s resurrected her department store line after a six-year hiatus. She’s cutting her trademark shapes--strong shoulders, nipped-in waists and graceful skirts--in chiffon, seersucker and cotton knit. There are shirtwaist dresses with ballerina-length circle skirts, stretchy zipper-front jumpsuits, wrestler-style swimwear and pantsuits that are a hybrid of tramp and dandy. “So many people contacted me, begging me to ‘please do that line again,’ that I thought I’d be foolish not to,” she says. Kamali sportswear, priced from $25 to $345, is now at Nordstrom, I. Magnin, Fred Segal and Neiman Marcus.
* NOTED IN PASSING: A variety of breakfast styles of the tall, dark and famous have been seen at the Beverly Hills eatery Michel Richard of late. Last Tuesday at 9:15 a.m., red-bespectacled actor-playwright Sam Shepard sat hunched over the small table nearest the kitchen, brown leather jacket draped behind him. The black waistcoated Shepard ate but half a sweet roll while poring--intensely, of course--over a piece of paper. Other recent sightings include George Hamilton, tanned in bike shorts, and Neil Diamond, eating en famille .
