BY DESIGN : EIGHT IS ENOUGH : Spring’s Leading Looks

Much to the disappointment of L.A. fashion acolytes, the season for wearing fall clothes is about as abbreviated as an Anna Sui shrunken T-shirt. Really, how comfortable is a fake fur or a mohair sweater on a 70-degree day? Clothes that work here are lightweight and pared down, the kind that American and European designers traditionally cook up for spring.

So, with bated breath, we watched over the past several weeks as designers here and abroad presetned their visions of What the Well-Dressed Woman Will Wear (Please!) next season. What we got was a view of fashion’s collective unconscious at work, anointing a particular hemline, a favorite print, a shade of pink and a heretofore ignored erogenous zone.

“It looks like there was a manufacturer’s run-over on snakeskin,” muttered a photographer who, in one day, had snapped snakeskin shirts, snakeskin belts, snakeskin vests, snakeskin jackets and pretty horrific-looking snakeskin loafers.

We laughed but made a mental note to track down our very own snakeskin vest, skinny belt and knee-grazing skirt.

Because designers carry ideas from one season over to the next, strains of spring ’95 can be found now. A Monday newspaper ad for Anne Klein’s youthful A-Line collection, for example, featured a short-sleeved khaki sweater over a silk charmeuse slip skirt--a look straight from the runway. Buying clothes that foreshadow next season’s silhouette is the best insurance against ending up with an outdated wardrobe.