NOTES ON FASHION
 
By MICHAEL GROSS

Published: September 14, 1987

LEAD: PALOMA PICASSO and her husband, manager and partner, Rafael Lopez-Sanchez, are going into the accessories business. Their new company, R and P Concepts, will manufacture and distribute Paloma Picasso accessories -handbags, scarfs, belts and small leather goods - beginning next fall.

PALOMA PICASSO and her husband, manager and partner, Rafael Lopez-Sanchez, are going into the accessories business. Their new company, R and P Concepts, will manufacture and distribute Paloma Picasso accessories -handbags, scarfs, belts and small leather goods - beginning next fall.

Sonja Caproni, formerly the vice president for fashion of the I. Magnin department stores in California, will move to New York to become the new company's president.

Miss Picasso, who has previously created jewelry and a perfume, spoke about her new venture from the Gritti Palace Hotel in Venice, where she was vacationing. She said she considered her previous products to be accessories and now hoped to offer 'everything around fashion but fashion.'

'It will be what I wear, more or less,' she said. 'I've always been a great believer in accessories. Even with the same clothes, you can look different every night. I want to give women the tools to make their own personalities come through.' STEPHEN SPROUSE'S boutique at 99 Wooster Street in SoHo (between Prince and Spring Streets) has opened, but its opening party will not be held until Sept. 17.

The invitation, a knockoff of the cover of an album by the defunct punk-rock group the Sex Pistols, reads,
'Never Mind the Sprouse, Here's the SSStore.' Champagne, Coca-Cola, milk, chocolate-dipped strawberries and cookies will be served at the 9 P.M. event.

Meanwhile, the fashion world is looking forward to the designer's spring wholesale collection. A visit to Mr. Sprouse's Union Square offices revealed what may be in store. Swatches - little squares of sample fabrics - were littered about. Their pastel Day-Glo colors looked like Lilly Pulitzer gone punk. AMERICAN design is going new places this fall. On Sept. 19, top figures in American fashion will join in a $3 million outdoor fashion show at the second annual Festival International de la Mode in Paris. An expected audience of 15,000 will view the show on the grounds of the Palais de Chaillot and in the gardens of the Trocadero.
The organizers say they will hire 900 models to show 900 outfits. Such American designers as Oscar de la Renta, Carolina Herrera, Norma Kamali, Ralph Lauren, Bob Mackie, Carolyne Roehm and Pauline Trigere will share the runway with Yves Saint Laurent, Emanuel Ungaro, Christian Lacroix and their counterparts from about 30 countries.

But it won't be only major designers from the United States who participate. Some of this country's bright young talents - including Diane Pernet, Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors, Carmelo Pomodoro and Patricia Clyne - will also be in Paris, thanks to Emile M. Tubiana. His company, which organizes fashion trade shows like the New York Pret, has underwritten the American presence in Paris.

'This industry, like many others in America, has been remiss about exporting,' said Jean-Pierre Radley, president of Trigere Inc. and treasurer of the New York Fashion Council, which is organizing the American part of the event.

'We're not selling anything,' he added. 'This is a show; we're showing the flag.' AMERICANS will also be showing the fashion flag in Moscow, where United States Fashion Design Week runs from Sept. 16 to 22. According to the Soviet Society of Designers, it will be the first-ever show of American fashions in the Soviet Union.

The festivities are to include meetings between Russian trade organizations and large fashion companies like Jockey International that want to sell to the Russians and a fashion show that will include designers like Adrienne Vittadini, Alexander Julian, Joan Vass and Cathy Hardwick.

There will be the debut of a collection called 'Design for Peace,' the result of a collaboration by 10 Soviet and 10 American designers, and the presentation of a fashion award to Raisa Gorbachev, the wife of the Soviet leader.

'Two years ago we wouldn't have been able to even discuss such a project,' said Michael Owen of Dallas, the executive producer of the exhibition. 'I was shocked at the receptiveness to all of our initiatives. Fashion seems to be a safe vein to plug into to get cooperation going.'

The most interesting aspect of the whole event should be the segment of the fashion show devoted to Baryshnikov Bodywear, dance fashions sold under the name of Mikhail Baryshnikov, the dancer who defected from the Soviet Union. According to a spokesman for Mr. Baryshnikov, he gave permission for his products to be featured.

The Soviet need for fashion is apparent. But why is Mr. Baryshnikov allowing this repatriation of his presence, if not his person?

'I'm sure he has a purpose,' said Edgar F. Berner, executive vice president of Baryshnikov Bodywear. 'I'm not sure what it is. We deal with stretch products. Maybe we're stretching the possibilities of glasnost.'
Mr. Baryshnikov declined to comment. Glasnost goes only so far.

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