STRAIGHT FROM PARIS : FLORAL INFLUENCE BLOOMING IN WORLD'S FASHION CAPITAL.

Byline: Suzy Patterson Associated Press

It's a long way from catwalk to sidewalk, but many clothes shown in Paris will make it into somebody's wardrobe, even if they're only a little pullover, a shoulder-baring dress, or a slim jacket and pants.

``Shown'' in Paris is the operative word, because a lot of what happens here is not French but from Italian, Japanese, Belgian and German designers, whether they show for their own names or for older, established names like Dior, Balenciaga, Balmain or Chanel.

``We like to think it's still Paris fashion,'' says Jacques Mouclier, president of the Chambre Syndicale, the powerful couture and luxury ready-to-wear organization. ``We wanted open doors for international designers to keep Paris the main center for fashion.''

So Paris means something fashionable in the air? ``Yes,'' says Mouclier. ``Paris attracts people who love art, beauty, fashion, and we aim to keep it that way.''

Among influential foreigners now showing under big names are English upstarts with original ideas, such as Alexander McQueen for Givenchy, replacing John Galliano, who has just taken over for Dior.

Their offerings are creative, and ``show'' for these fellows means preening for the media, though they do turn out some well-cut jackets and dresses - as Galliano has produced in the past, especially with his Empire dresses for Givenchy.

For summer, the general gist is for cool, light, feminine clothes that sometimes reach for skin-baring nudity, sometimes for transparency, but real clothes like pants and jackets are still waiting in the wings.

After the 1980s - dominated by everything from wide-shouldered power suits to luxuriant party power - things have calmed down somewhat, though the ideal ``look'' is still in flux for the turn of the millennium. Big-time marketing means variety, so you can choose your own style.

The silhouette is geared to the slim and trimmed-down - those with bony hips and less bosom. Still, Claudia Schiffer is fashion's more buxom model of choice, a contrast to her dark-haired opposite silhouette in brooding, string bean Stella Tennant at Chanel.

Hemlines are practically irrelevant. They waver up and down, though mostly a bit longer for summer, as knee-length is shelved yet again. In spite of a micro-mini or two, the sleek look of stretch-fabric skirts, often split, is well below the knee. In the slithery vein, fishtails are popular, taken up by Valentino and others - including some New Yorkers such as Calvin Klein.

While there are still suits and jackets with skirts - which women are still clinging to like safety rafts - the summer trends shown here go for the wispy, romantic look of dresses, often see-through, often lingerie-like, plus sharper, rather more minimalist clothes.

Shorts were shown timidly, if at all, though Myriam Schaefer at Nina Ricci offers rather tasteless minimal vinyl hot pants with excellent brocade jackets to save the day as you forget the hot pants below them.

Looking to the millennium also means glances back at the hippies and flower children of the late '60s and early '70s with their wispy or psychedelic styles. Big hair and the naturally beautiful (or gym-maintained) body take over.

Asymmetry rules at many houses, with bias cuts, off-one-shoulder looks, bare backs and uneven hemlines.

Trousers or shorts are the ideal solution in these summer collections. Long pants are often clinging, elasticized and hipster style, somewhat low at the waist, then flared at the hemline. Other pants are straightforward, lean and narrow, and the dressy models for evening come out as palazzo or trapeze style.

Toppers may include gauzy dusters, little clingy knit abbreviated T-shirts and camisoles or tank tops.

Highlights always include the Chanel show, and this time there's a real bonanza from Karl Lagerfeld. His Amazon woman showed up as a jodphur-clad rider, complete with fabulous black or navy foitted riding jackets.

Clients may not want the horsey-set look, but there will be plenty of pink or turquoise Chanel tweed suits, skirts cut nicely to the knee, plus feminine flowered pique dresses and some bare midriffs.

The tiny coats buttoned up to the neck worn over flaring crepe de chine or acetate skirts are meant to be a kind of upside-down suit look - the skirt flaring below, instead of the blouse and open lapels above, a Lagerfeld conceit that adoring clients can take any way they want.

Lagerfeld also floored the fashion set with his proposals from Chloe: romantic wisps and lots of bare-faced gags. And his own label should prove equally influential, with bias-cuts, wispy spider-web weaves, enough clingy clothes and ``out of Africa'' nature hues to clothe a bird from Mombasa.

Yves Saint Laurent opts out of the ready-to-wear show scene but offers a typically conservative, wearable collection. His clothes are still up-front: Try a well-cut classical trouser suit with lightly fitted blazer or laced-up ivory silk variation on his original safari jacket from 1968.

Ungaro, now working hand-in-glove with his majority shareholders at Ferragamo, shows a spring collection that is very pretty and very commercial, if not stunningly original. See his plaid suits or some of the feminine late-day clothes in light fabrics for excellence.

Misty colors and sometimes wispy styles were the Cerruti offering by designer Narciso Rodriguez, whose big coup last season was Carolyn Bessette Kennedy's (Mrs. John Jr.) wedding dress. The fabrics were feather-light, the styles in easy pants or short skirts cool.

Also cool, light and loose were the outfits of Yohji Yamamoto. Some of the easy pants and tunic or long-dress looks were polished with couture finish.

As for fabrics, besides the classics (cottons, linen, silks from georgette to shantung), look for voile, feathery light synthetics, bubbly and textured fabrics, fishnet, chiffon and tulle. Nylon and voile transparencies are the new foascination, and stretch lycras and viscose are important as well, even in upmarket clothes.

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6 Photos

Photo: (1--Color) Floral bolero by Hanae Mori, Paris.

(2--Color) Oscar de la Renta, the first lady's new couturier, designed this '60s-inspired sheath and coat with an embroidered border design for the House of Pierre Balmain in Paris. Look for similar styles by Los Angeles designers this spring.

(3--Color) New York designers favoring florals include Liz Claiborne.

(4--5--Color) Supermodel Claudia Schiffer, left, wears a floral bridal gown by Yves Saint Laurent at his haute couture show in Paris, but you can tap into lower-priced flower power by L.A. designers such as Max Azria of BCBG this spring, at right.

(6--Color) The flower's the thing, even if it's only an accessory, such as this brooch on Balmain's collarless jacket.