THE STYLE FILES: THE PLAYERS : The Ladies’ Salesman : Teddy Edwards knows how to make a woman happy

Calling Teddy Edwards a salesman is practically indecent. Even his actual title, sales associate, is inadequate. Fine ladies’ dresser is closer to the mark. Attire adviser, at least. Haute couture courtier . . .

Teddy, as everyone calls him, has been many things in his 60 years. A tyke in the British West Indies, where he was born. Teen-ager in New York City. U.S. Army soldier in Japan and Korea in the ‘50s. Actor in the ‘60s in Paris and Rome, with bit parts in Fellini’s “Satyricon” and “Catch-22.” Restaurateur and boutique owner in London in the ‘70s. Sonia Rykiel specialist at Bullocks Wilshire from 1984 until its tragic closure last year, when he assumed the same post at parent company I. Magnin in Beverly Hills. (He settled in California for the weather.)

These days, Edwards’ domain is a place where women routinely drop $10,000 to $20,000 for protective coloration, where Chandon Brut Cuvee and San Pellegrino are poured in the shoe department (in monogrammed I. Magnin Champagne glasses), where the salespeople are better coiffed than most people in human history, where at least one severely underdressed visitor was greeted with a steely stare and a hollow, interrogative “have you been helped?”, where statements like “this is too beige--it almost looks cream ! are practically Muzak, where fine ladies’ skirts, dresses, jackets hang in lithe, elegant rows, awaiting fine ladies to inhabit them.

“When I’m looking at a lady, I’m looking at her as a piece of art,” Edwards effused. “I love it when I finish dressing a lady and the result is that she looks wonderful . . . You can bring out something that she hasn’t seen. There’s nothing better than that! That’s the reward.

“A lot of people are shy about dressing and don’t have a lot of nerve, and often those are just the people that can look fabulous!”

He sat easily in an I. Magnin office two floors above raucous Wilshire Boulevard, impeccable in faintly striped charcoal Oxford suit, tie with muted colors just bordering on flair, tasseled loafers, red rhinestone AIDS pin. In all, no more presentable than a newly minted coin.

“I’m actually an actor, and it’s all theatrics with me,” he said--no, projected --in a carefully modulated, smoky timbre. “And I love theatrics. I think that’s part of my success, that I pull people into my theater. It’s more than just selling.”

Don’t misunderstand the remark about theatrics; Edwards does not imply insincerity. His job merely allows him to indulge his sense of the dramatic; his designated I. Magnin “area” is his stage. Besides, he will tell you, acting is organic to dressing well: “Yes, oh, it’s certainly connected. And women certainly are the prize actresses. Especially today’s women that have invaded the corporate world. I have a lot of those kind of ladies and certainly clothes are going to help them a great deal.”

And it is more than just selling, with this man. Sales are almost anticlimactic; the perfunctory necessity done at the end of fashion consulting. Edwards’s long-established reputation is that he genuinely has the beauty of his clients at heart--not what’s inside their Gucci bags.

“Teddy isn’t there to sell you something,” flatly declared longtime client Sheila Tepper, noted arts patron and producer of KKGO-FM’s “Backstage California.” “Teddy’s there so you have something that’s right for you, that you love, that’s right on your body, that looks good to him, and that you’re comfortable in. I don’t know anybody else that does that. He has an unerring eye, and his friendship is there.”

Rosemary Stack, wife of actor Robert and no stranger to high fashion shopping, echoed Tepper. “First of all, I don’t like to be sold. Teddy doesn’t sell you, he just kind of shows you, which I appreciate . . . I think he can especially help a lady who--and I’m not referring to myself--there are some women who can spend money on clothes, and they don’t know what kind of shoes to put with it. You know? Which is really kind of sad. Which is why they need people like Teddy.”

This ladies’ gentleman--whose zest and appearance belong to a man 20 years younger--has more than 300 regular clients, about 75 of whom are “active.” (He will divulge no names.) Yes, he keeps files on their tastes--largely in his head--but is not necessarily bound by patrons’ stated parameters. Like any good actor, he improvises:

“Well, I have lots of ladies who just so rarely come in, I just continually pick things for them,” he said, ignoring a hissing glass of San Pellegrino at his side. “Often they’re busy ladies and can’t really come in for the trunk shows and what-not. I go to the trunk shows often, and I’ll say, ‘Oh that would be great for so-and-so’--and I UPS it to them.

“I’ve had one of my customers tell me that her husband said, ‘Oh, I wish I had a guy that could do that for me, because it’s like Christmas!’ When UPS shows up, a lot of them say, ‘I don’t know what it is, but if Teddy sent it, it must be something fun . It’s like someone sending them presents.”

Of course, the recipients generally buy these “presents.” And they generally take Edwards’s raiment recommendations, no matter how seemingly foreign or outlandish.

“Ladies, I think, often do not see themselves as others see them. I was showing a lady a Donna Karan Oriental dress, and she was saying, ‘Oh, Teddy, you don’t think i could do that .’ She was a writer. I said, ‘Certainly!’ A photograph of the dress showed a lot of leg. By the time I got her into the dress, she bought two--the white and the black. She didn’t think she could wear them, but I could see that she could.

“In that case, a man does a good job. Another woman might also have said, ‘Oh, no. I wouldn’t do that.’ Whereas if a man tells them to do that, they might take a chance because he is a man. Although in the long run, I think a lot of women dress for other women.”

Edwards’s taste, say some clients, tends toward the conservative, but is seldom predictable, and always marked by a bit of panache or surprise. Edwards will tell you he simply seeks to illuminate an aspect of character that a client might not notice. Consider the story of The Lady and the Shawl.

“I have a patron, and I had this wonderful shawl that I said she absolutely had to have. She really wasn’t that interested, but in the end she bought it. And she went to Venice (Italy). She was sitting in a famous bar--and three ladies approached her and said, ‘My God, I love that shawl you’re wearing!’ So she sent me a post card saying ‘Here’s that shawl I didn’t want to buy, and three ladies wanted to buy it!’ From that day on, she said, ‘You tell me if there’s anything great.’ ”

So just exactly how did this soldier-turned-actor-turned-restaurateur finally turn to fashion? With a good deal of admitted drive, self-confidence, and . . .

“When I thought about going into clothing, my first thought was, “Well I don’t know much about it,’ ” he said. “My business partner said ‘Yes, but you know a lot about people. And I love the public! And I think whether you’re being a restaurateur or selling clothes, it’s all quite similar. Because you’re dealing with the public. I think if you’re going to be an actor, you do like the public. I like (working as a sales associate) better than acting, because there is a one-on-one basis as opposed to acting, where you never meet the people.”

What of the “infrequent” client he would rather not meet? The cranky and irate? The petulant? Edwards merely quiets down. “I’m usually a person who loves ranting and raving,” he laughed. “But when I see something like that, I immediately clam up.”

To his surprise, the job also calls for discretion of a type he employed while running a restaurant. “I found out very early in the restaurant business to think twice before you say anything, because a guy can come in one day with his girlfriend and another day with his wife. So I learned in the clothing business to listen, but not say too much.”

Should one happen to, to use Edwards’s term, “pop by” his spot at I. Magnin these days and not find him in, it’s probably because lately he has been visiting other branches as a roving ambassador for Sonia Rykiel. It’s a responsibility very much to his liking. And yes, this sexagenarian still has an aspiration or two up his expertly tailored sleeve.

“I’ve always thought of myself as a fashion host on television,” says Teddy Edwards, with an air of confidence that seemed to ensure its becoming a reality.