BY DESIGN : TIGHTLY WOUND : Herve Leger’s Bandage-Wrap Dresses Appeal to Those Who Dare to Bare

When French designer Herve Leger came to town, he brought trunkloads of his signature bandage-wrap dresses. Imagine an Ace bandage wrapped mummy-like, with a very high hemline and plunging decolletage, and you’ve got the idea. It’s fashion first aid, but not for the fainthearted.

“You’ve got to love your body and you’ve got to like fitted clothes,” Leger said. And no one likes them better, apparently, than the women of L.A. Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills sells more Leger than any other store in the chain. So it was here the designer staged his first U.S. fashion show, a benefit last month for American Cinematheque.

His sexy designs for spring dazzled some, while others in the audience looked a bit dazed by the show, which exposed more leg than a Miss America pageant. The “King of Cling,” as Leger’s been called, has two favorite lengths: micro (mid-thigh) and really micro (baring a bit of cheek). Then there was the issue of tightness: Dresses looked as if they’d been applied with glue.

But the sandy-haired, 37-year-old designer dismisses the notion that his clothes can be worn only by young, lithe models. Or such women as Cindy Crawford, Geena Davis, Nicole Kidman and Meg Ryan, who wear his smoldering designs.

“It’s not a question of being perfect,” he said. “I dress very different kinds of bodies, and I dress women from 16 to 70. I know that not all women are a Size Small, and I know they do not all have good bodies. But I don’t think about that when I design.

“I like clothes that are really body-conscious. I’m not going to do tent dresses just to please.” Rather than emphasize flaws, Leger said, his $1,000-to-$5,000 dresses ameliorate them, like a girdle. “I don’t like the word, but here they say it sucks you in. It shapes your body because of the material and cut.”

Before Leger struck gold with his signature look, he worked as an assistant to Karl Lagerfeld, then as free-lance designer for Charles Jourdan and Lanvin. His own Paris boutique opened in 1985, floundered with financial problems and closed in 1989.

When he developed his bandage dress a few months later, everything turned around. Now his seamstresses hand-make about 1,000 wrap dresses a year.

“I think his clothes are gorgeous,” said Sally Kellerman, who plays a fashion editor in the upcoming Robert Altman film “Ready to Wear (Pret-a-Porter).” Leger’s clothes play well with the gym-toned and surgically enhanced set, who showed up in droves the day after Leger’s show and placed about $250,000 worth of orders.

Some of the biggest Leger fans, however, may very well be the viewers, not the wearers.

“Men love my clothes,” Leger said, then corrected himself. “It’s not that they like my clothes. They like sexy women.”