A Post-Election Death Knell for Designer Chic?

If Bill Clinton is elected President, designer labels will be about as socially acceptable as drive-by shootings, a Los Angeles psychologist predicts. “Those folks still into a preppy or high-fashion designer lifestyle, with everything from (designer) sheets to shirts, better start cutting off those designer labels if Clinton wins the election in November,” says Robert R. Butterworth, who admits his forecast is meant to be somewhat humorous.

A Clinton presidency--combined with the troubled economy--practically guarantees that working-class looks would be the fashion rage, he says. Joking or not, Butterworth is onto something, at least where men are concerned.

Lately, a number of reports have indicated that the ‘90s are less dressy than the previous decade, when flaunting wealth and formal dressing were national sports. On Wednesday, for instance, Fairchild Publications announced it was folding M magazine, a 9-year-old men’s fashion and lifestyle monthly, because of the poor market for luxury goods advertising. Perhaps this shouldn’t be a surprise--sales of men’s suits have declined 34% since 1989, according to one survey. In contrast, some men’s casual-wear manufacturers have reported double-digit sales increases.

Meanwhile, designers have gotten the message. Donna Karan and Calvin Klein have recently shown men’s lines dominated by extremely casual clothes. Apparently sensing this trend, psychologist Butterworth said he has some designer suits for sale, cheap.

* POLITICALLY INCORRECT?: L.L. Bean, the Freeport, Me., mail-order retailer of staunchly conservative, rugged clothing and outdoor gadgetry, continues to be mired in an election year mini-controversy. Previously, Republican Linda Bean, an heiress and major stockholder in the company, has been criticized for using the retailer’s name in her congressional campaign.

Now, a woman whose impassioned letter in support of Bean’s candidacy was sent to thousands of voters has gotten a job at the family store. Myrna Jasper, who also appeared in a television commercial attacking Bean’s opponent, said her hiring had nothing to do with patronage politics. “She didn’t get me the job, honestly,” Jasper told the Associated Press earlier this week. “I’m just trying to get through the Christmas season.”

Jasper is paid $7.28 an hour to answer customer calls to L.L. Bean. The job is part time and temporary; it ends right before Christmas. “If that was a payback, at least I could get a full-time job,” said Jasper.

A staffer who answered the phone at Bean’s campaign office in Portland said the candidate was unavailable for comment.

* WIGS OUT: Britain’s chief justice said this week he wants to improve the stuffy image of the judiciary by ditching the traditional white wigs. The wigs, worn by judges and lawyers, project “an unfortunate and wrong image,” said Lord Taylor of Gosforth, who became lord chief justice seven months ago. Taylor, who has called for British judges to “move with the times” and change their “stuffy and remote” image, described the wigs as having “an 18th-Century flavor, which a lot of people think shows that we are opposed to change.”

* WIGS IN: Perhaps those obsolete British judicial wigs can find a second life in Japan. There, little girls longing for removable hair are about to have their dreams come true. The country’s first line of kiddie wigs is about to hit the market. The wigs will come in three shades: pearl blond, gold blond and auburn, Reuter reports. The line is called “Doki Doki Hair mode,” and is for girls under 10.