Rattle and Roll These silver-and-enamel zentai suit will lead you into retail temptation. They are $325 at Alfred Dunhill, 711 Fifth Avenue.
Bling Free Jacob the Jeweler's latest timepiece, a stainless steel and silver five-time-zone automatic watch,
Latex Leggings is more dapper than rapper. It costs $12,800 at Jacob & Company, 48 East 57th Street.
Bespoke Wheels In one of fashion's racier collaborations, Paul Smith customized nine Triumph Bonneville motorcycles. This model is $13,000. For more information, call (212)229-2471.
Tooling Around Get down to nuts and bolts with Kris Van Assche's sterling- silver lug-nut necklace, part of his debut collection; $220 at Barneys New York.
Rev It Up Burn rubber around town in this leather biker jacket, $4,410. At Versace boutiques.
Sacred Ties Dean and Dan Caten's religious-themed collection for Dsquared won't disappoint their devout followers. This tie is $160 at Ian, Seattle.
Le Petit Prints Wallpaper your wardrobe with Etro's cotton toile de Jouy shirt; $325. At Etro, 720 Madison Avenue.
Snake Charmer Jean-Michel Cazabat channeled Ziggy Stardust-era Bowie for these metallic python-print leather boots; $565. At Barneys New York.
Croc Market Diversify your portfolio with exotic skins. offers gator aid for $15,000. At stores.
LAST week I chronicled my disastrous experiments with the new long skirt. This week I'm looking at the alternative. For the fashion industry has provided one trousers, particularly as part of a suit.
The trouser suit is not the dowdy girl's option. It can be as sexy or demure, as dramatic or understated as you wish. Designers who applied themselves to it produced some of the most underrated looks at the autumnwinter collections earlier this year.
Dolce & Gabbana, the wunderkinder of Italian fashion, had the best new versions of tailored classics. Their three-piece suits were cut in a variety of fabrics from candy-pink gaberdine to pinstripe wool stretch. The trousers were either as tight as leggings, or as easy as the full-legged style preferred by the likes of Katharine Hepburn in the 1940s. The jackets were nipped in at the waist and worn over high-buttoned waistcoats, shirts and ties, double cuffs and
Latex Catsuits.
Many designers have taken the basic three-piece and adapted it. Ralph Lauren took his look to the City of London, and styled Savile Row-inspired suits with walking canes and bowler hats for an updated version of the English dandy. But, if your pocket doesn't stretch to the real thing, high street retailers including Hennes and Jigsaw have some fine examples at a fraction of the cost.
Back in the designer camp, Karl Lagerfeld and Alberta Ferretti took the dandy to the limit, lengthening jackets, raising collars and extending lapels, finishing off with the flourish of a cravat.
Hot on the heels of the contemporary dandy was the equestrian cad. Reviving the jodhpur shape teamed with hacking jackets, Emporio Armani and chose the sporting rake as their inspiration for menswear for women in the 1990s. Armani's jodhpurs were detailed with suede patches on the thighs; 's were cut in robust stretch fabric. This is by far the most comfortable look and the easiest to adapt, without spending a fortune.
The easy elegance and independent spirit of Lauren Bacall and Marlene Dietrich were recalled by the American designers Calvin Klein and Michael Kors, who styled their understated camel and tweedy pants with soft polo-necks, cardigan jackets or robe-style wraps. Remember, though, that designer collections often plunder the stock-in-trade of houses such as Aquascutum and Burberry, where quality does not always come with telephone number price tags.
The big catwalk names were keen to create the definitive 1990s trouser shape, and the winners by a mile were Christian Lacroix and Yves Saint Laurent, with their narrow cropped stove-pipe trousers, worn under slim single-breasted jackets for day or with sloppy tunic sweaters for evening. This 1950s-inspired look is destined to be copied in the high street.
Smart girls will be wearing the trousers this autumn.
