Arnold Scaasi : The New York designer seldom does anything just for shock value. He prefers to dress women who like to be feminine--not ‘characters in S&M; movies.’

When Barbara Bush needed a dress to wear to the Inaugural Ball, she turned to her favorite designer, Arnold Scaasi. He created an elegant royal blue velvet and satin dress that perfectly complemented the first lady.

“That was a high point of my career,” Scaasi says.

First Ladies, actresses, prominent socialites and royalty have all worn Scaasi when the occasion called for a glamorous gown or sparkling cocktail dress.

The New York designer has come to Le Meridien in Newport Beach to unveil his fall cocktail and evening collection at a fashion show presented by Neiman Marcus.

Minutes before the production, people flurry around the designer. All want Scaasi--the media, the people from Neiman Marcus, the socialites from Angelitos de Oro hosting the benefit.

And he has an almost imperial presence that comes from designing clothes for the rich and powerful.

“I don’t do candid photos,” he tells a photographer who ventures a quick shot in the middle of an interview. This is a man who likes to be in control.

He allows himself to be led away to where models clad in his zebra-print dresses await their walk down the runway.

“This is like doing a Broadway show,” he says. “The sad thing is, people see it only once.”

The parade of shimmering clothes that follows reflects Scaasi’s principle that “a dress should touch and define the body at least once--at the hip, bust, waist--somewhere.”

Many dresses have tightly fitted bodices and simple necklines. The skirts are often full and fussy. They come trumpet-shaped, belled, wrapped and tiered.

Color is a Scaasi strength. He wraps his models in brilliant jewel tones such as fuchsia, emerald and ruby. A segment of the show is devoted to what one onlooker called “Barbara Bush blue,” a rich royal that Scaasi does in damask, sequins, brocades, velvet.

For evening sparkle, he uses multicolored sequins, gold brocade and colorful prints dotted or striped with gold. One off-the-shoulder gown features a gala print of purple, red and green overlaid with gold polka dots.

Animal prints, which some had thought had faded into extinction, are used by Scaasi to create wild party clothes.

He begins and ends his show with zebra-print brocade dresses and gowns, including a dramatic zebra coat lined in ranch mink. For the bridal sequence that traditionally signals the end of most fashion shows, a bride of Tarzan wears zebra stripes and a bare-chested groom dons a zebra brocade loincloth.

Scaasi has many variations on the little black dress. He shows one in lace with a short tiered skirt, another in jersey with a cut-out back, a sequined strapless style and a velvet with scalloped neck, wide belt and a full skirt.

Scaasi likes to say he dresses women who like to be feminine, not “characters in S&M; movies.”

Unlike many designers, he seldom does anything just for shock value. The exception in his fall collection is a multicolored sequined gown with a see-through black chiffon top with sequined pasties that drew gasps from the conservative Orange County audience.

“I like to do clothes that flatter a woman. I don’t think you should ever wear anything that’s not flattering to you,” Scaasi says. “My operative word is pretty.

“A woman who chooses what suits her, that’s a woman with style. She can’t just choose the latest trend or what looks good on her best friend. She has to differentiate.”

He resists trends. When other designers decided to lower hemlines for fall, Scaasi was not among them. Most of his dresses hit above the knee.

“I don’t think we’re ready for long day skirts yet,” he says. “I love clothes just above the knee. It’s a better length, a better proportion. I just don’t think the long skirts are flattering.”

But he does not rule out long skirts entirely.

“The thing about fashion is your eye changes. When clothes get narrow and slim, you start thinking maybe the hem could be longer.”

For 30 years this has been Scaasi’s life--the ever-changing hemlines, the runways, the luncheons, the press.

Scaasi was born in Montreal, where he graduated from the Cotnoir-Capponi School of Design.

He worked for New York designer Charles James in the 1950s before starting his own ready-to-wear business with $2,000 in savings.

In two years Scaasi had garnered top fashion awards and sold his clothes to more than 200 retailers. By 1963, however, he had tired of designing more than 12 collections a year.

He shut down the ready-to-wear operation and opened a couture house on Fifth Avenue in 1964. There, in a pale gray mirrored salon adorned with silver swans, he designed made-to-order clothes for clients.

Over the years the list of his famous customers grew: Elizabeth Taylor, Ivana Trump, Danielle Steel, Diahann Carroll, Joan Rivers, Barbara Walters, Barbra Streisand, Mary Tyler Moore and Mitzi Gaynor all wore Scaasi.

He has been dressing Barbara Bush for five years.

“She likes strong colors and clothes that are flattering” is all he will reveal about the First Lady.

Scaasi returned to ready-to-wear on a limited scale with his Scaasi Boutique collection of cocktail and evening wear, which sell for $900 to $3,500.

“Thirty years is a long time,” he says. “But there’s always a fabric that inspires you. I can’t believe I still get excited about it.”