Local fashion legend Leroy Shumate of Leroy Menswear, 204 Pike St. (also voted among "Seattle's best dressed" last year by Seattle magazine) was in attendance. He said the most glaring details were overall numbers are down-a bit subdued-indicating a possible tragic downtrend in the fashion world. He said some of his regular suppliers weren't even there, and populations were reduced on both sides. Still, the super style spectacle went on.

Events tended toward the glam, the wham, and the "industry-functional." This year's show coincided with Mardi Gras, increasing the party atmosphere. The coincidence sparked some Katrina relief efforts (benefiting the NOLA Area Habitat for Humanity) and a masquerade ball featuring the Neville Brothers. A-list parties were filled with catwalk models, celebrities and paparazzi.

The actual clothes tended toward pop culture: reinventing what is seen on MTV, VH1, and the like, lots of "sexy," newly-recycled, edgy, flashy, 1980s meet the 1960s (again), a continuing saturation of the Playboy look and logo, more hand-sculpted, hand-painted fashions and supped-up cotton, expensive T-shirts, virtual total urbanity, and even the return of retro rockabilly-The Notorious Bettie Paige lives! (Even the old standbys, Air Jordans, were in evidence.) Some called it "a hustler's paradise." Like Vegas itself, they go for the show.

As for what's hot now, heres' a spring fashion forecast as Seattle wakes from the cold: Demure retro. Think scaled-down psychedelic dresses, tiny sexy details, scarf dresses (which speak loader than ever), day-glo pink and orange (luckily steering back away from that unsightly traffic-cone orange that reared its ugly head during this past cruise season), flow-y, empire-waisted dresses, more hot shoes and more tragic macramŽ-esque shoes. (Designers are getting tricky and sort of hiding the hippie fabrics, but they are there-look and beware!)

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