The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 84

LOS ANGKL13 TIMES FRIDAY, AUGUST 23. 1991 E5 FASHION FIT LISTEN What a Coup? Some events are too fleeting to exploit, even on T-shirts. Within hours of this week's Moscow coup d'etat, San Diego-based T-shirt manufacturer Pacific Eyes T's issued two designs featuring Mikhail Gorbachev. One silk-screened message reads: "Have you seen me?" The other reads, "Soviet Executive Health Plan" and features rifles pointed at the leader's head. After the coup crumbled, the company updated the flip side of the shirts, adding: "Gorby's Back." They were selling for $14.99 at the company's Sherman Oaks Fashion Square store.

"We didn't see it as a major event, but we didn't think it would be over this fast. Even the Noriega thing lasted a week," says Dale Weston, the company's advertising director. DI RULES THE WAVES: British bathing beauties have been clamoring for the swimsuit Princess Diana was photographed wearing on a family cruise this month. The frenzy is over a IRIS SCHNKIDEH Los AiircIcs Times "I'll see a kid walking down the street and I'll say to myself, 'Hey! I fit those says behind-the-scenes model Joseph Koralik. line, you can always eat before an interview.

If they like you, they will compensate for the difference." After three years, she has 16 accounts, including Yes Clothing and numerous fit model perks such as lavish presents and clothes that are either free or discounted. Although she frequently must explain her work, assuring people she did not say "foot model," Sturgeon is ecstatic about her unr expected luck: "My lifestyle has changed drastically. First I got a Mercedes, then I got a car phone. My car is like my office now. And I've moved into a really nice loft apartment." Such success stories come with the territory.

But for Nancy Krusp, a large-size fit model, there is.an added bonus. "I'm a consultant, which is much more rewarding than other forms of modeling," explains Kruse, who also does runway work. She considers it part of the jdb' to let her employers know "the average large-size woman is not sitting on her couch in a muumuu, watching Oprah Winfrey and eating Twinkies. These women have 'careers and they care about how they look." Her employers, who include Paul Stanley and St. John, "are counting on me and my It's still a case of testing the waters in large sizes." 1 Fit models have their personal touches one wears Eternity, "because everyone tells me how good I another insists on manicured nails, "because I'm always pointing to something;" yet another brushes her teeth between appointments, "because I get so close to people." 1 For Kruse it is her bras: "I must have 40 or 50 in different colors and patterns.

I try to match whatever I'm wearing. I started colle'ct-ing them because people see trie so often in my underwear." But the best part of the job is the clothes: "I've been large-size ever since I was a baby. When I would go shopping with my grandmother, I would always ask her, 'Why can't I have cute clothes? Why can't they just make them Now Kruse has so many pretty clothes, they have overtaken 'fier apartment. They are everywhere even on racks in her living room. "I'm making up for "lost time," says the woman who served as fit model for them all.

"I fee! like a kid in a candy store." turquoise ana goia print, two-piece suit with a bandeau top and a V-wrap bottom. It was designed by Amy Price of the Oregon-based Jantzen, for cruise '91, and is no longer manufactured. According to Ron Gustaff, international director for Jantzen's European operations, the suit is one of more than a dozen that the princess ordered. The royal basker returned those she didn't want and paid for the suits (about $134 each in Britain) that she kept, Gustaff said. THE COMMERCIAL'S IN THE MAIL: You might find a videocassette of Spellbound in your mail this week.

It's a three-minute commercial about a new perfume. Estee Lauder and Robinson's are shipping the tape-along with a scent strip and mail-order form to several thousand women as part of an ad campaign. Cassettes will also be Princess Diana includes a reliable car, a car phone and a dependable answering machine, which she checks every hour. "People underrate the power of a fit model," says 15-year veteran Dran May, whose accounts include Enchantd and a maternity line-where she fits with a special pillow she helped develop. "A manufacturer has to have a consistent fit the consumer can identify with," May explains.

"There is nothing worse than going into a store, buying a pair of pants and returning a month later for an identical pair and finding the fit is off because the manufacturer is fitting on his wife or his secretary." After years of experience, models such as May are savvy. "We know about threads, about patterns, about placement and proportions. In my case, there are companies that will not pass a garment until I come in and say it's OK, because over the years their garments have sold." For Jennifer Joanou, a young Los Angeles designer with a studio and shop on La Brea Avenue, fit was once a problem. "I thought maybe it was me or my pattern maker," she recalls. It turned out to be her model.

"There was some thing off, but it wasn't visible to the eye." Joanou laughs at the misconception held by some customers that she is her own fit model. "I'm a teeny-weeny Size 2 with a body that isn't in proportion to my legs." Instead, she relies on Mayra For-nos, whom she describes as average size with a really great figure. A former Los Angeles Rams cheerleader, Fornos fell into the profession when a friend, a cheerleader cum fit model, asked her to substitute while she was on vacation. "It was a transformation for me," says Fornos, who has helped shape Guess jeans. Two years ago, when she had more jobs than she could handle while attending law school, Fornos started Models! Models! in Culver City.

One of her early discoveries, Yvette Sturgeon, was between careers when Fornos spotted her at a party. "I had never heard of a fit model before. I thought it was incredible that you could try on clothes all day especially if you're a clothes horse," says Sturgeon, a junior sportswear model who has learned to fiddle with at least one measurement: "If you need a bigger waist Continued from El don't lose or gain an inch, fit models can ply the profession for years. But the right body is not enough. Successful fit models must also resemble a manufacturer's ideal customer, have a keen sense of style and an uncanny eye for detail.

They must quickly become experts who can diplomatically tell designers and pattern makers what is right and wrong with every inch of a garment. While a small number of manu- facturers will hire a secretary or production assistant to double as a fit model, most companies prefer a professional. Explains Francine Browner, president of Los Angeles-based Rue de Reves: "I want a fit model who is a fit model, not one who answers phones. Many times we've had a person working here who could substitute, but she couldn't give us the feedback we need." The company's "star," as Browner calls her, is Sigute Lownds, a 33-year-old actress and former dancer who has what many manufacturers consider an ideal figure: 5 feet, 6V inches arranged in a 36-27-38VS configuration. "We never get complaints about the fit of our garments.

That is what makes her a success for us," says Browner. "She epitomizes our customer. A fit model has to be a combination of the best figure in the world and also be able- to accommodate the flaws an average person might have." Lownds a fit model for seven years, five of them with Rue de Reves free-lances her services to 10 accounts, including Componix, Judy Knapp and various divisions of Jonathan Martin. For Browner, Lownds' free-lance status is a plus: "The fact that she doesn't have just our point of view makes her more valuable to us. It gives her knowledge of what is going on in the industry." A fit model's knowledge is as important as her measurements.

Lownds, who works a five-day week, cramming in five to eight accounts and 100 to 150 garments a day, explains: "This is a profession and you have to act like a professional. It means busting your butt to do as many garments as the pattern maker gives you, and then on to your next account. You're constantly moving and you constantly have to be aware of what you feel and what you see in the mirror. People start to trust you and your opinions you can change the style of a garment. The responsibility is immense." Her list of job-related necessities On Aug.

22, 1983, Philippine opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino was assassinated. His killing ultimately sparked the revolution that toppled President Ferdinand E. Marcos. McMillan and other historians agree that August has an impressive record for major events.

But they also say that the upheavals of August are probably only coincidences. "If you took any month of the year, you'd find all sorts of things going on," says Robert Dallek, a UCLA history professor and author of "Lone Star Rising: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1908-1960." But knowing a coincidence when he sees one, Dallek also notes: "Lyndon Johnson was born on Aug. 27, 1908." SALE AAAAAAAAAi Wmmm Kill IH I 'IWl'i'F I'lMl I MMliliiroifiraiiETI attached to some September issues of Elle magazine. "The trend in fragrance is away from florals, back toward exotics," company executive Evelyn Lauder says of the new Spellbound scent of jasmine, tuberose and spices. And which perfume is she wearing this summer? "None," she said.

"My doctor forbids it." Lauder, who is allergic to bee stings, was advised by her doctor to avoid scents, flower-print dresses and the color yellow until fall. VIDEO VIXENS: Dancerchoreographer Christy Curtis recently unveiled a new workout video, "Cardio-Choreography," featuring the Los Angeles Laker Girls. Coincidentally, Curtis is Lakers' owner Jerry Buss' daughter-in-law and her husband, Johnny, is the video producer. The low-impact video workout is available for $29.95 by calling (800) 622-6212. Cher is also joining the ranks of mistresses of discipline.

Her workout video is scheduled to debut in September. Listen has heard that spinoff merchandise may include a line of aerobicdanceshow-off-your tattoo clothes. BIG MACKIE ATTACK: Eileen Ford's "Supermodel of the World" was telecast last Saturday night. Gracing some of the luminaries were 16 glitter gowns that Bob Mackie loaned to the event. Model Rachel Hunter, the evening's hostess, picked a white fringed and beaded flapper dress, quickly became very attached to it and wanted to take it home.

Lee W. Moore the show's stylist quoted her the price. Without batting an eyelash, Hunter scribbled a check for $10,000. -COMPILED BY GAILE ROBINSON AUGUST Continued from El dropped on Hiroshima and Japan. World War II ended shortly after-Ward.

On Aug. 15, 1947, India and Pakistan were granted freedom from the British Empire, sparking bloody clashes between Muslims and Hindus in the chaos that followed. The Berlin Wall began to go up on Aug. 31, 1961. The Tonkin Gulf Resolution that gave President Lyndon Johnson broad powers to wage the Vietnam War was approved by Congress on Aug.

7, 1964. The Watts riots in Los Angeles Cloth World 1 began on Aug. 15, 1965. In August, 1966, the Chinese Cultural Revolution was proclaimed. The Soviet Union clamped down on budding democracy in Czechoslovakia with an invasion on Aug.

22, 1968. The continuing troubles in Northern Ireland began on Aug. 25, 1971, the same day President Richard M. Nixon imposed a wage-price freeze to stabilize the U.S. economy.

Nixon resigned on Aug. 9, 1974, forced out by the Watergate scandal. After a dramatic strike, the Polish government recognized the Solidarity union on Aug. 30, 1980, a seminal event in the dissolution of communism. SIMPLICITY PATTERNS i Buy one pattern, I get one of equal or I lesser value for 1t.

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