FASHION : Do Clothes Make the Case? : Let the record show that conservative, uncontrived attire wins out with local attorneys and judges.

Unless you’ve been living on another planet, you know more than you ever wanted to know about the O.J. Simpson trial. You know that prosecutor Marcia Clark raises eyebrows with her short skirts, defense attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. wears bright blue suits, and star witness Kato Kaelin needs to get his shaggy hair tamed.

But what do you know about the Ventura County court scene?

Personal experience has convinced criminal defense attorney George Eskin that some county judges are adamant about proper court attire. Some years back, Eskin forgot his suit jacket in a rush to get to court and the judge lent him his sport coat rather than let him appear in shirt sleeves.

“I think it’s less the clothes than how the clothes affect the individual’s presence or presentation,” says Eskin, who has law offices in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. “You want to put your best foot forward and do whatever is going to enhance your credibility and not detract from it.”

Which brings up his complaint that female attorneys can come to court in a blouse and slacks, but men have to be trundled up in the traditional suit, shirt and tie.

According to Lela Henke-Dobroth, Ventura County’s chief deputy district attorney, Eskin can’t be referring to the deputies in her office because she vetoes short skirts and even vivid colors for her staff.

“I think clothes play a big part in how a jury sees an attorney. They will be receptive or not, based on first impressions,” Henke-Dobroth says. “Marcia Clark wore red, considered a hostile color, to court one day.” She never did it again.

Behavioral scientists contend that impressions people make on one another are based 60% on appearance, 33% on the way they speak and 7% on what they say.

Eskin adopts a more casual look when he’s not appearing before a jury, wearing slacks and a checkered sports jacket, for instance. Not into spending big bucks, “I don’t buy the suits they’re talking about Shapiro and Cochran wearing. I buy my suits right off the rack like anybody else,” Eskin says.

He voices strong opinions on what his fellow attorneys wear. “By and large, most of the attorneys in the D.A.’s office and in the private bar dress pretty boring, pretty drab, primarily grays, blues and blacks,” he says.

Tossing the judges into the same category, he says with tongue in cheek: “They wear those black dresses. Of course, some of them wear next to nothing under them. Like shorts to go bicycling or to play volleyball later.”

I couldn’t let that go unchallenged, so I questioned Judge Herbert Curtis, a model of decorum and dignity in Municipal Court. He didn’t bat an eye.

“Yes, I wear running shorts and tennis shoes sometimes, but I have my shirt and tie on top,” Curtis says, mentioning another judge who also wears shorts. Since the court doesn’t allow hearsay, I can’t repeat that judge’s name, even though I’ve had corroborating witnesses.

As for clients, the courtroom can be an intimidating place, and proper attire helps to lessen that feeling. Eskin tells his clients to be comfortable, wear something appropriate but not overdress. He may have forgotten this advice to a client in a civil case--a truck driver who wore a three-piece suit and held a cigarette holder to smoke. Not the best idea, according to Eskin, who says it made the client look like a phony.

Henke-Dobroth tells witnesses in criminal matters to wear what they would wear to work. That probably wouldn’t apply to Playboy centerfolds or scuba divers, would it? Guess you have to use common sense.

Over at the district attorney’s child support division, supervisor Stan Trom doesn’t think that judges are influenced by what defendants or witnesses wear because decisions are based on income and state requirements.

“You can have the seediest-looking person and he still has to pay the money, and the guy wearing a Rolex might not have a dime,” Trom says. “It might not even be a real Rolex.”

I checked juror fashions with Ted Whitacre, who served on a lengthy Ventura County murder trial recently.

“We weren’t told what to wear, but I think if you showed up in Speedos, that would be inappropriate,” Whitacre says. “Older members dressed nicer, the men in slacks and sport coats and the older women in dresses. Younger ones came in mostly in Levi’s, the hair cut short on the men except for one Harley-Davidson biker type.”

A female defense attorney impressed him with her impeccable dress, right down to her mid-heel shoes. But she lost the case, so go figure.

Image consultants agree that a low-key, refined look with brand names that shout quality is standard fare for attorneys who want to project brainpower and not pizazz.

But criminal defense attorneys have more freedom to be flamboyant. We have some of those right in our own back yard. They do it with hats.

Take criminal defense attorney Richard Hanawalt, who wears an English-style plaid hat. Felicia Wood, who used to be a public defender before going into private practice, wore hats and caftans to court. And few can forget Los Angeles attorney Gladys Towles Root, who always showed up in her trademark, extra large, wildly outlandish hats.

Then there was attorney Anthony Carsola, who would enter the basement cafeteria of the old county courthouse and toss his cowboy hat clear across the room, where it often landed right on the clothes hook.

I complained to Eskin that those days seem to be gone forever. He disagreed, saying: “I’ll be in court on Monday wearing my multicolored caftan and purple turban--just for you.”