Mackie Should Have Moved Earlier

Bob Mackie is Broadway-bound. The designer, who closed his New York-based women’s apparel line this year amid reports of financial difficulties, will return to the Big Apple in February to design costumes for Tommy Tune’s “The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public.” The irony of doing a Broadway musical now that he’s resettled in Los Angeles is not lost on Mackie: “I was in New York for 10 years and no one offered me a Broadway play.” He recently designed costumes (not to mention wigs, T-shirts, logos and coffee cups) for a show that opened this week at the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills called “Ruthless.” Hmmm . . . a play about the fashion business? “No, but close,” he said. “It’s about show biz.” Producer Joan Stein (“Love Letters,” “Forever Plaid”) calls it “ ‘The Bad Seed’ meets ‘Gypsy.’ ”

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I Dream of Janey: That thick blond braid sprouting from Jane Fonda’s ever-youthful head at the recent Hollywood Legacy Awards was, it turns out, all in the name of fitness. According to Fonda’s longtime stylist, Barron Matalon of the Joseph Martin Salon in Beverly Hills, the actress took the plait for a spin as a sort of dry run for her new yoga video, being shot this week. When Fonda was flooded with compliments, she decided the do would do. Matalon describes the Lotus Look as “a sort of ‘70s, sort of American Indian, sort of Zen-type thing.” But can that really be Jane’s hair? “I’ll give a free haircut to the person who can prove it’s not!” We’re going to watch that tape very closely.

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The Age of Nostalgia: Michelle Pfeiffer is a well-known Armani devotee. But for her weekend wedding to TV producer David Kelley, minimalism and modernity went out the window. The actress wore an antique lace gown from Santa Monica’s Paris 1900.

“I can confirm she bought it here,” said owner Susan Lieberman, after checking with Pfeiffer’s secretary, “but nothing else.” Let’s just say the shop’s exquisite turn-of-the-century dresses start at $700 and soar into the thousands for a gown made with heirloom-quality lace.

What’s a Pfeiffer-inspired bride on a budget to do? Try the white cotton batiste dresses from the early 1900s ($200 to $400) at Playback in West Hollywood. Or the Hollywood Vintage Clothing Marketplace on Nov. 28 at Las Palmas Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard. A bride with a marriage or two under her belt can find a vintage evening dress in ivory or ecru ($200 to $1,200)--meticulously restored and hand-laundered--at the Elizabeth Lucas Collection on Montana Avenue. Lucas says people love vintage clothes because “most of the stuff out there is cheaply made doo-doo.”

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Burnt Offerings: It hasn’t been an easy time for Donna Karan. The New York designer angered the business press by banning them from her recent shows, then incurred the wrath of several industry bigwigs by starting a show without them. Now comes word that the Donna Karan Co. is suspending what had been the most talked-about fashion stock offering of the year.

“We have made this decision despite the enthusiasm of our underwriting group and our belief that the offering would have been a great success,” Karan said Wednesday in New York. The company had planned to sell 11 million shares at $15 to $17 each in hopes of raising $176 million. But, Karan said, “We don’t feel that a public offering at this time would reflect the potential value of the company.”

Stephan Weiss, Karan’s husband and business partner, blamed the decision on third-quarter results that fell below projections. The company may take another stab at going public when the retail climate warms up. Stay tuned.

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Is That the Price Before or After NAFTA?: We stopped off to chat with Jil Sander at her new boutique inside I. Magnin. There’s a word for that shop: big . Very big, modern and modeled on the Paris store. Fashion watchers see Sander as a self-made powerhouse, poised for world domination. That alone makes you wonder what she wears. We checked: a long, deep-gray jacket ($1,320), narrow gray pants ($850), a crisp white shirt ($310) and short lace-up boots ($625). And over her arm, a long navy coat ($4,100), for a world-class total of $7,205. At these prices, one shopper’s story was particularly memorable: She wanted to replace a never-worn Sander suit lost in the Calabasas/Malibu fire.

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Pardon Our French: What is it about French fashion designers that turns Americans into jiggling mounds of confiture ? At a lavish dinner party near San Francisco on Tuesday night, the hostess toasted guest of honor Christian Lacroix: La vie est dure sans confiture. The last word--French for jam --prompted a puzzled look from Lacroix. “Marmalade?” he muttered, but the hostess kept on going.

Lacroix and some of his best I. Magnin customers had been whisked by bus--which featured a Lacroix video--to the Jordan Winery in Healdsburg. The tables groaned with silver and the talk turned to models (“I am not a super-model addict”); Lacroix’s health after two back operations (“I don’t think about it”); criticism that his designs don’t sell (“I can make clothes that sell”), and his work (“I don’t want to be satisfied”). A procession of maids in white gloves cleared the dishes and guests were whisked back to town. “It was all terribly grand,” said one.

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Around Town: There’s something so masculine about all those Hermes ties and deep-sea diving watches and gloves. And after meeting the company’s master designer, Henry d’Origny, at a retrospective of his 34-year body of work last week, we know why: How many designers have spent three years working in a West Indies sugar factory? Or served three years with the Algerian Calvary? . . . Neiman Marcus has donated $500,000 worth of clothes--with the labels carefully cut out--to those who lost their homes in the recent fires. Maxfield will donate 10% of the store’s sales to the Red Cross.