LOOKING GREAT; SAN FERNANDO VALLEY STYLE GURUS TURN HEADS ALL AROUND THE WORLD.

Byline: Barbara De Witt Daily News Fashion Editor

Valley style?

Sure, we had an adolescent fling with unflattering 'dos and dresses, but at least the world knows what a Valley Girl is.

And everybody, from the New York fashion industry to Orange County yuppies (imagine!) to late-night talk-show hosts laughed about us living in a cultural wasteland.

But nobody's laughing now. (Heck, a lot of us even wear black in the summer just like New Yorkers.)

Finally, the big Valley is big on style - and style makers.

The O.P.I nail-polish factory in North Hollywood sells 20 million bottles of lacquer a year at $6 a pop. The company's products are available locally at J.C. Penney hair salons and Saks Fifth Avenue, as well as salons and beauty supply stores from Pacoima to Pittsburgh and Paris to Prague.

Every season it's a new color palette and marketing theme, and artistic director Suzi Weiss-Fischmann is the style maven. Not only does she dream up the colors, but she helps mix them and then waits at the end of the assembly line to give each new color a personal appearance test.

``Not only do they have to look good on your hand, but the colors have to complement each season's retail fashions, fabrics and textures - or we lose our edge,'' Weiss-Fischmann explains.

Although she lives in Encino and paints her nails Pistol-Packing Pink (a sheer bubble-gum pink), Weiss-Fischmann has to have her well-manicured finger on the public pulse.

According to Weiss-Fischmann, ``People in Paris love red; in London it's deep burgundy; and in Munich, our best seller is an orange-red. But Americans like mauve. Ever since it was launched in our first collection in 1989 under the name Grand Canyon Sunset, it's been our best-selling color.''

Although she refers to mauve as a ``middle-America color,'' she admits Valley women are tired of blue and green polish and are rethinking pink, from fuchsia to sheer baby pink worn in two-tone French manicures, the latter a year-round fave in both the Valley and Beverly Hills.

When it comes to hair stylists, Allen Edwards is the Valley's highest-profile style maker.

With a few snips of his scissors, Edwards turned a slightly frumpy district attorney named Marcia Clark into a media magnet during the O.J. Simpson trial.

But he's always been in the news.

Edwards, who now has four salons (including one in Woodland Hills), got his start as a stylist to the stars when he worked for Jon Peters in Encino. When his boss became romantically linked with Barbra Streisand, Edwards bought the business and soon became known for creating Farrah Fawcett's now-famous feathered haircut in the '70s.

His star-studded client list currently includes Rita Wilson, Leslie Ann Warren, Anne Bancroft, Donna Mills, Sally Field, Lisa Rinna, Kate Capshaw, Julianne Moore, Renee Zellweger and Lara Flynn Boyle.

He's proud of his clientele but still blushes. ``Honestly, I want to be known for what I do, not who I do,'' he says. And he does a lot: about 4,000 haircuts a year, priced at $100 each. Sure he could charge more, as they do in Beverly Hills, he confides, but his first love is cutting hair, and he likes to stay busy.

His other love, besides his wife, Lisa, and their four children, is talking about hair. And he does plenty in classrooms, on the radio and on TV shows such as ``Oprah'' and ``Good Morning America.''

Staying on top means never becoming stagnant, always changing yourself to inspire clients to change their looks, Edwards said.

``Remember, in my business, you're only as good as your last haircut,'' he says.

Like Weiss-Fischmann, Edwards has spent enough time in the Valley (30 years) to know all about Valley style. Hoping he doesn't hurt anybody's feelings, Edwards comments, ``The Encino woman sometimes tries too hard (to be stylish) and likes her hair a little too bouffant, while women in Calabasas and Westlake Village are conservative but chic. Studio City style is really more L.A. than Valley, and Woodland Hills style is more laid back, but open to change.''

The shape's the thing

Valley style maker Eugenia Weston also has created new looks for the rich and famous, but she uses a pair of tweezers and a powder puff.

She started her career as a makeup artist doing the faces of cover girls for photographers such as Helmut Newton and Herb Ritts, later working for Valley hair stylists, including Geri Cusenza of Sebastian International, who asked her to develop Sebastian's Trucco cosmetic line.

In 1979, she created her own cosmetic line and opened her first studio in Tarzana, naming both of them Senna.

Weston makes custom-blended foundation and lipsticks, teaches people how to apply makeup and has a staff of 28 people to give everyday women glamorous makeovers, but her specialty always has been eyebrows.

``They're the most important stroke to the face. With great brows, you don't need other makeup,'' says Weston, who adds that too many women over-tweeze, which causes poor shaping and distorts the face.

To give her 30,000 L.A.-based clients the best brows possible, Weston has developed the Form-A-Brow Kit for $35 that includes an eyebrow stencil, a tiny jar of tinted powder and a pair of brushes. ``You hold the stencil over the eye, pressing tightly, then brush the powder over it,'' she instructs. Then she takes the stencil off, and the client has Joan Crawford brows, but she quickly explains that you need to brush and brush until it's natural looking, with no hard edges.

So who's got her brows? Marcia Clark, who's left law and gone to talk shows, as well as Michelle Pfeiffer, Paula Abdul and longtime client Bette Midler. Weston and Midler have collaborated on numerous projects, including ``Gypsy,'' which earned Weston an Emmy nomination for her makeup artistry.

How `Providence'-ial

Style maker Giovanna Ottobre Melton of Valley Village doesn't have a store or studio, but you can see her work on TV's new Friday night show ``Providence.''

She's the series' costume designer, using clothing to mold the look of the show and its characters.

On the ``Providence'' set in Van Nuys, Melton says she designs and creates costumes, but also buys off the rack and then alters them.

Either way, the clothes have to fit the character profile.

According to Melton, ``On `Providence,' the main character has come from Beverly Hills to a small town on the East Coast, where she works in a low-income clinic. So she needs to look toned down with neutrals. Since she's got a classic style, she wears a lot of Tahari, Calvin Klein and BCBG, all with our own personal touch. But I do more custom work for the younger sister, who is a wilder and more colorful character.''

Whatever project she's working on (her credits include feature films ``The Hand'' and ``The Rapture'' and the TV series ``Moloney''), she puts her signature on it.

Says Melton, ``I go for realism. I want the audience to know that character really does what he does for a living. And it's funny, but my father can always tell when I've worked on a show.''

Could these style makers make it anywhere? Say, New York ... or even San Diego?

Says Weiss-Fischmann, ``I came from New York to the Valley and found it had affordable real estate, an opportunity to hire a good work force (she still has her original employees), a nice family lifestyle and trend-setting shops and restaurants. We have everything L.A. has, but it's a lot less hectic, and I love it.'' According to Edwards, ``The Valley's been good to me. All of my stores have been successful.''

Ditto with Weston, who now has cosmetic counters in the Encino Place shopping center and Nordstrom stores at Topanga Plaza in Canoga Park and Glendale Galleria, as well as the original Tarzana studio. According to Weston, ``The Valley is a great place for a beginner, with lots of opportunities. I'd advise anybody just starting out to rent a shop on a busy corner or in a strip mall on Ventura Boulevard, Topanga Canyon, Coldwater Canyon or Riverside Drive ... hopefully near a popular restaurant. Or even better, a Starbucks.''

According to Melton, ``The Valley is growing up. And with more and more studio industry moving in, it makes sense to stay.''

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) On the cover: Allen Edwards of Allen Edwards Salons.

(2) High-profile style makers in the Valley include, clockwise from top right, costume designer Giovanna Ottobre Melton, hair stylist Allen Edwards cutting wife Lisa's hair, Eugenia Weston of Senna Cosmetics and Suzi Weiss-Fischmann of O.P.I. nail polish.

(3) no caption (Nail polish)

Photos by John Lazar, John McCoy, Phil McCarten and Evan Yee/Daily News