RSVP : So, Just What Were These Folks Hiding?

The Scene: Wednesday’s West Coast premiere of Miramax’s “Ready to Wear (Pret a Porter)” at the Avco Cinema. A party at Neiman Marcus hosted by the department store and Elle magazine followed. This is director Robert Altman’s film about the fashion industry, which, he said, “is about as vacuous as Hollywood--and Hollywood is pretty vacuous.”

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Who Was There: Altman; the film’s stars, Sophia Loren (who was introduced to wild cheers), Rupert Everett, Kasia Figura, Sally Kellerman, Richard E. Grant and Sam Robards; Miramax chairman Harvey Weinstein (who came with Madonna); plus 800 guests including Sean Penn, Uma Thurman, Michael York, Louis Malle, Lesley Ann Warren, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Terry Stanfill, James Galanos, Neiman’s Burt Tansky and John Martens, Elle’s Carl Portale and designer Thierry Mugler, who said, “I don’t know if this film is reality or fiction. I guess it would be funnier for us if it was fiction.”

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Quoted: “The movie’s about nakedness and how we hide it,” said Altman. “Every one of those stories has to do with what we wear, why we wear it and what it can do for us. We all dress to communicate to other people who we think we are, or who we want them to think we are. It’s all disguise.”

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Topic of Discussion: When one guest said the film reminded him of a “Seinfeld” episode--”It’s about nothing”--another said, “Then why are so many people offended by it. Altman has clearly placed the skewer in the right part of the sausage.”

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Noted: There was a New York premiere of the film earlier in the week. One fashion writer said the difference between East and West coasts is, “People are too nice here. And it was too easy getting in. There wasn’t any of that elbow-sharpening madness at the door.”

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Epiphanies: Men perusing the designer clothing on Neiman’s second floor learned that simple, little black dresses sell for thousands of dollars. There were wonderful moments observing middle-aged men staring incredulously at price tags.

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Overheard: “It made me want to wear Levis for the rest of my life.”

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Why Fashion Will Always Be With Us: After seeing the film, with performances by everyone from Sophia Loren to Julia Roberts, one woman said, “I’m just amazed Kim Basinger let her hair look that bad.”