THE FALL COLLECTIONS / MILAN : Ending All That Carrying On

I’ve always been amused by those smug magazine stories with diagrams for traveling light and friends who boast of spending three weeks in Europe accompanied by a mere carry-on. The only trick to packing a small amount of stuff is deciding to leave almost everything home. But traveling heavy--that takes planning and organization.

As one who travels with her own mug (stuffed with socks, it never breaks) and dual-voltage immersion heater (the better for making Carnation sugar-free hot cocoa without waiting for room service to bring hot water), I have refined traveling heavy into an art.

But faced with a five-week business trip to Milan, Paris and New York, I wondered whether my usual method, taking everything I think I might need or want, might be improved upon. I consulted Michael Sharkey, director of personal shopping at Barneys New York and a man of taste and wisdom. “You take two suits, with skirts, one dress, two pairs of pants that work with the suit jackets, jeans and one cardigan,” he said.

I was already homesick for my closet.

“How about my favorite double-breasted blazer?” I asked.

“OK, one sport jacket, but only three blouses--two silk, one cotton,” he said.

“Turtlenecks, some sweater sets?” I pleaded.

“Sure, and some T-shirts, but not too many,” he continued, “a leather belt for day and a metallic belt for evening, an evening bag and a tote bag for day, flats for day and a pair of heels for evening, and sneakers you can wear for walking or to the gym. Don’t forget jewelry and scarves. But people over-pack when they take too many versions of the same thing.”

In other words, the eight black sweaters, 12 leather belts, five handbags and 11 pairs of shoes I took on my last European journey don’t fit into Michael’s plan. “If you’re missing something, that can be incentive to go shopping,” he added, comfortingly.

Attention, Shoppers: In case no one told Calvin Klein, Donna Karan and Ralph Lauren, designer jeans are not an exclusively American phenomenon. The list of Italian designers eager to have their names displayed on the backsides of the masses includes Missoni, Trussardi, Armani, Gigli, Moschino, Versace and Krizia. So many jeans, so little time, even though Levi Strauss still does a perfectly good job of making the denim pants it invented.

I considered conducting a road test to discover what subtle differences in fit gave each of the Italian jeans a reason for being, but saved myself a lot of effort by concluding that there is no distinct Italian jeans cut. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and selling jeans is just a good business.

Too Late, Even for a Supermodel: With a schedule that runs from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., the fashion shows in Milan (and Paris, where the fall collections will be shown next week), routinely begin late. An explanation is rarely given for why the royalty of the fashion business, princes of retail and princesses of journalism must sit in their cramped assigned seats waiting for the lights to go up and the music to start.

Sometimes tardy models are blamed. Naomi Campbell arrived more than two hours late for cashmere czarina Laura Biagiotti’s show Tuesday. Models were due at 10:30 to undergo hair and makeup preparation for a 12:30 start. When Campbell appeared at 1 p.m., the show had already begun, and she was sent away. Perhaps she was unavoidably detained, trying on designer jeans.