California Apparel News
June 6, 2003

As Seen On TV
Samantha Kritchell

NEW YORK - Lucy Ricardo was a fashion icon for a generation and so was Alexis Carrington Colby. Ditto for Charlie's Angels, and Rachel, Monica and Phoebe.
TV Characters not only wear the hottest trends, often theyset them.
Remember lucy's halter-top dresses with full skirts on "I Love Lucy"? And Alexis'shoulderpad-filed blouses kept her both busienss and personal rivals on "Dynasty" at bay. Both looks caught on with women in a way that couture clothes worn by supermodels never will.
But lucy's cinched wasists, the Angels'sexy athletic wear and even Rachel's much-imitated bouncy hairdo from "Friends" early days were seen their heydays come and go, so 47 students at the California Design College have given these trendy-turned-tired styles a facelift.
The Trednsetters in Television fashion show, recently staged in Beverly Hills, Calif., sent above-the-knees dresses in polka-dot prints down the runway for a modern Lucy, anda three-piece suit minus the usual fourth piece -a shirt - surely would work on "Charlie's Angels." Meanwhile, the linen suits from "Miami Vice"still have a place in pop culture - as long as the colors are turned down from colorful sorbet shades to neutrals.
Angeles Zograyan, 27, saysshe hopes the design-technology techniques will help her launch a career in constume design. Her part of the project was to create even more up-to-the-minute fashions for "Sex and the City," already considered to be the most style conscious show on Television.
"I took a lot of 40's and '50's looks and made themsexier byusing different fabrics, like silk taffeta and crinkled silk chiffon," explains Zograyan, interviewed by phone.
She says she tried to mix what she expects to be the immediatefuture of fashion -cocktail dresses with low backs and slits with chiffon inserts -witheach of the characters' personalities.

But while the "Sex and the City" girls influenced what mainstream American wears, the show also reflects what mainstream America likes. "Now you're seeing people in floral, fullr skirts and rose details like Sarah Jessica Parker wore," Zograyan says.
"TV is sort of a moving fashion catalog," says Donna Mills, star of the 1980s series "Knots Landing," which students identified as one of the trend-making shows of the decade.
"The general public is a little intimidated by 'fashion.' A lot of people don't know how to put things together or how to wear something. It's the same with makeup," Mills observes. "But when they see people -even if it's on TV -wearing the clothes and moving around in them, it is realyl helpful."

Also, notes Sabrina Kay, California Design College president and founder, not all the characters on Television are young, tal,and thin, which makes them a little bit more like real people. At the fashion show, students updated the plus-size wardrobes featured on "Designing Women" and "The Jeffersons."

"Their (the students) desire to do plus sizes shows some business sense because it's an underserved market," Kay says. "Our students are programmed to be practical. It's the way we train our students to make a career."

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