In Touch With Our Higher Fashion Sense

Tonight, while we’re watching “Mystery” to tap into our higher self, John Bartlett will be fitting Ali MacGraw and company for an upcoming yoga video. What’s the connection between the young, avant-garde menswear designer and the lotus position? It seems that MacGraw, a longtime yoga devotee, was in the audience at the Council of Fashion Designers of America awards in New York a few months ago and saw a short film Bartlett produced for the occasion involving yoga.

“She’d been looking for a director for her yoga video and hired Claudio Droguett, the guy who directed my film, to direct hers,” said Bartlett. “She trusted me to design things that wouldn’t look like L.A. exercise clothes.” And that would be? “Fitted tight tops with loose pajama bottoms or oversize tops with leggings--so that each outfit has that tension to it.” Because the video will be shot in White Sands, N.M., Bartlett used fabric in shades of blue and white, “to go with the sky and the sand.”

Saturday night, Bartlett will be part of the crowd at The Temple’s second annual Skirt Party in West L.A., which includes a fashion show of his and other local designers’ skirts. Skirt-wearing guys are more common in New York than L.A., he said, but Bartlett’s oversized caftan sold out completely at Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills this season. “I wish they’d bought more,” he said with a sigh.

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Making New Money Look Old: Calvin Klein’s pretty wife Kelly dropped by the Montana Avenue vintage clothing store Elizabeth Lucas the other day via chauffeur-driven limousine. When another shopper admired her diamond eternity band--the one Calvin bought from the estate of the late Duchess of Windsor for a reported $103,000--Klein took the ring off and let the woman try it on. (We guess even an eternity ring needs a break.)

Klein left the store with three pieces from Lucas’ flawless stock: a long, cotton frock in a tiny floral print with a gathered bodice from the ‘40s; a white tea gown in cotton batiste from the ‘30s; and a black lace-and-chiffon evening gown, also from the ‘30s. Oh, and her wedding ring.

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To Us, She’ll Always be Madison the Mermaid: Daryl Hannah may have only been 50 feet tall in her last film (“Attack of the 50-Foot Woman”), but in designer Karl Lagerfeld’s eyes, she looms even larger. “Daryl Hannah, for me, is a woman who has the look, the attitude and the way to move in life,” said Lagerfeld, describing the woman he’s hired to pitch his new fragrance, Sun Moon Stars. “She is what I think the complete woman of the late 20th Century could be, should be.”

Lagerfeld said he fell in love with Hannah’s “ethereal” beauty when she appeared on the December cover of Harper’s Bazaar. We were more taken with Helmut Newton’s wicked shot of the young actress in Vanity Fair a few years back. There she was, in full starlet regalia--pouty red lips, bikini, stiletto heels--holding, no, balancing a tiny baby on her arms. A complete woman of the late 20th Century.

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Game Boys: Tired of sitting through tedious televised basketball games just to glimpse a few fleeting moments of your favorite sneaker commercial? Have we got a show for you! Sunday at 8 p.m., QVC will broadcast the premiere of “Hoop Heroes,” a two-hour Nike commercial starring “Nike’s hottest merchandise” (have your credit cards handy) with special--and brief, we hope--appearances by NBA superstars. The icing on the cake? Outtakes from Nike commercials.

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Take Our Money--Please: Buying a gift certificate for $25 at Express should be fairly simple--or so we thought, until actually attempting such a transaction. Before acknowledging our presence, the salesclerk had to fortify herself with a piece of gum, chit-chatting with a gum-supplying colleague. Then:

“A gift certificate, huh?” she asked, between chomps. “Nancy! Nancy! Do you know how to do a gift certificate??

“You wanted a gift certificate, right?

“Well, they kinda just walked away. Where are they?

“Joyce! Joyce! Do you have the key to the drawer where the gift certificates are?”

“That was a gift certificate, right?”

Right.

“That was cash, right?”

Right. Mission accomplished, we asked Miss Chewing Gum if the certificate could be used at other locations. “Of course!” she chirped, with so much confidence we had to wonder if she were just playing dumb before. Nah . . .

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Armani A/X Changes Hands: Simint Spa, an Italian clothing company controlled by designer Giorgio Armani, announced this week that it has sold Armani A/X, its money-losing U.S. retailing chain to Singapore-based group Ong Beng Seng as part of a restructuring. A/X had been touted by Simint as its main money-earner in the years ahead, but required heavy investments to start and is still losing money, according to Bloomberg news service. It was Simint’s first venture into retailing. There are 41 A/X stores in the United States.

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Trendless in Los Angeles: The other day, a Newsweek editor left a message on our voice mail. It seems the magazine was intrigued with a couple of fashion curiosities we’d written about. But by the time we called back, we were told that one of the trends--teens tying their sneakers upside-down--was old news. “Several bureaus,” she said in all seriousness, “confirmed it.” Oh.

* Inside Out is published Fridays.