Fashion : Searching for the Look : At Valley high schools, boys pair new hair colors with old denim styles while girls try dresses for more individuality.

What’s new with San Fernando Valley teen-agers now that they are back in class? Boys are tinting Gomer Pyle-style buzz cuts, sport ing the occasional earring and hold ing fast to their baggy shorts ensembles (even though fashion reports say they are tres outre ).

For girls, showing legs this fall means more than just wearing an occasional pair of shorts. An increased interest in dressing up seems to be permeating the fashion strategies of high school girls throughout the Valley, according to 17-year-old Jasmine Estrada, a senior at Grant High School.

“Everybody is wearing more dresses, skirts--it’s cooler and more comfortable, and you can feel really pretty,” she says.

Slip dresses with spaghetti straps, worn with tight T-shirts--called baby T’s by the teen set--and suspenders attached to overall-style jumpers and baggy pants are all the rage with high school girls. Cheryl Nesen, 17, a self-admitted clotheshorse and senior at Agoura High School, wore a plaid schoolgirl-style jumper over a baby T. So enamored is she of the baby T phenomenon that she bought nine of them in bright and neutral colors.

Thigh-high socks are also popular. Rozi Masrelian, a 14-year-old sophomore at Grant High School, borrowed a burgundy pair from a friend to wear with her “second-day-of-school” outfit.

Some super-casual trends prevail, such as the trendy variation on the “Farmer Ted” ensemble. Victoria Greene, a 17-year-old senior at Agoura High, liked the look of overalls worn with a tight T-shirt so much that she wore it on the second day of class.

Following trends like a pack of lemmings is less important now than during the ‘80s.

“People are just trying to find really original stuff that’s right for them,” says 17-year-old Saun Ellescas, a senior at Agoura High, who embraces individuality in her understated, original approach to dressing. Ellescas’ favorite new outfit for school: a plaid jumper from Urban Outfitters in Santa Monica. (She still hopes to add a pair of sandals to her wardrobe, says green is her favorite color and hopes to have her tongue pierced.)

Likewise, classmate Renee Abrams, a 17-year-old senior, says, “I get what I like, what looks good on me.” Abrams opted for a white long-sleeve T-shirt, a black vest (very hip for fall) and a pair of wide-leg red printed pants.

Danielle Lamberti, also 17, a senior at Grant High, in the de rigueur A-line skating skirt of the season with a fitted top she purchased at Bullock’s, also dresses to please herself.

“The clothes now have more freedom. You can wear what really suits your personality, and wear clothes that (offer) more of a way to express yourself,” she says.

The Sketchers on her feet are an “in” shoe at several Valley schools. Though black seems to be the preferred color for this clunky, suede shoe with a waffle-style sole and rounded spaghetti-strand-style laces, Lamberti’s are brown because she says she likes to be different.

For Jeff Melcher, an 18-year-old Agoura High senior, getting noticed is the objective. Sporting a bell-enhanced court-jester hat bought at a nearby swap meet, he says, “I like to try different things, to stand out in a crowd.”

Male individuality may be the exception rather than the rule with boys his age. Levi indigo blue denim jeans, as well as terribly baggy pants and shorts, still seem to be the preferred uniform among teen-age boys--particularly at Reseda High School--though some, such as senior Ebby Kashani, 16, prefer a more polished look. Outfitted in a black T-shirt with an ivory vest and matching pants, he says dressing up is one way to attract the opposite sex.

“It makes you look good, and higher-class girls like it; it’s an image thing,” he says. “Those guys who wear those really baggy pants, to me it’s like they have no respect for themselves.”

Hair remains a focal point for boys. The bravest of the lot are dying their tresses, a preoccupation that Seventeen magazine’s October issue dubs the “dye-o-rama.” Though the mag’s photos reveal shades of grape, electric blue, green and other highly unnatural hair shades, 17-year-old Grant High students Spencer Robinson and Nick Rathbun went in for slightly more reasonable hair colors for their buzz cut ‘dos.

Robinson opted for a yellow blond Billy Idol shade, while Rathbun prefers bright red. Both purchased their boxed dyes, says Robinson, “from two old ladies in Van Nuys” at a beauty supply store and did the job themselves.

Robinson says one of his motivations was to get a rise out of his parents. Rathbun’s mother was out of town and had yet to see his new red look.

Earrings for boys are still popular on those whose parents will allow it. It’s a trend that seems to permeate the varied social strata at many of the schools.

As always, cliques continue to determine fashion choices. At Reseda High School, 17-year-old senior Karoush Mohajeri says who a kid hangs with determines his fashion ensembles.

“There is the Bohemian crowd, they go in for the more retro looks; and the more clean-cut crowd, they’ll wear, like, really white sweat shirts with shorts or jeans, that sort of thing.”