Denim

An old pair of denim jeans, no matter how tattered and torn, can be recycled. Try these ideas with your kids to create one-of-a kind denim pocket T-shirts.Step 1: Cut out the back pocket of a pair of blue jeans, cutting along the edge where the pants layer meets the pocket. Cut very close to the pocket top-stitching without cutting the pocket. At the top opening of the pocket, allow an extra inch of fabric above the pocket.Step 2: Pin this pocket to the front of a cotton T-shirt. Fold under the extra fabric at the top of the pocket and top-stitch in place.

NEW YORK -- Ask women to name their favorite fashion designer and you'll hear a litany of names from Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein to Donna Karan and Bill Blass.Ask women which designer label dominates their closet and many will tell you it's Liz Claiborne. They love the "big names," but they come with equally big price tags.Claiborne, on the other hand, is more affordable and often more applicable to their lives.Although the company's founder, Ms. Claiborne, retired three years ago, the design team she trained has continued her oft-repeated philosophy of clothes the "working woman" can afford.

To see just how successful The Gap is, ask yourself these questions:Do you know anyone, excluding very recent Albanian immigrants, who doesn't know what The Gap is?How many pieces of clothing have you bought from The Gap in the last year? The Gap is so successful that the prince of understated (and very pricey) chic, Giorgio Armani, has just launched a chain of in-store shops called A/X Armani Exchanges that are upscale imitations of The Gap. With jeans costing $80 and up, and denim jackets at $165, Armani Exchanges are clearly not wooing price-conscious Gap customers who've gotten used to paying $38 for Gap jeans and $50 for denim jackets.

CHICAGO -- From trendy city bistros to conservative corporate boardrooms, denim shirts are showing up in unexpected places."Americans have a love affair with denim," says Stephen Davis, owner of two Davis for Men clothing stores in Chicago. "Historically, fashion trends have started at the top and filtered down to the masses, but denim rose out of the working class. As hard as the fashion industry may have tried to subdue or kill it, denim keeps cropping up."Blue jeans trace their roots to the 1850s when Levi Strauss, an enterprising Bavarian immigrant, began supplying them to California gold miners.

Cowboy coutureConsistently, the European fashion designers seem to be the ones who forge the trends that American designers interpret into more wearable versions of clothing.But many of the most successful designers have ignored Europe and started looking for inspiration from honest-to-goodness Americans, the hard-working kind.So perhaps it's no fluke that New York designer Donna Karan's latest spring sportswear collection, DKNY, looks like something derived from a California cattle ranch that hired Thelma and Louise.

Model talkSupermodels, whose salaries and perks are at an all-time high, were at the center of a firestorm that was the talk of those gathered in Paris recently for the spring fashion shows.The controversy was over the astronomical fees that top models such as Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington are paid and the bonuses they command. In addition, there's a backstage feud brewing as less well-known models watch the supermodels strut down the runways wearing the best of each collection.

PARIS -- It's a bit early to announce the end of the century. But the spring fashion collections being shown here are so wacky and wild, decadent and even demented at times, that it looks like the Fin de Siecle Follies are in full swing here if nowhere else.The first sign of slippage came at the Thierry Mugler Western Round Up, when Ivana Trump, recently divorced from Donald, stepped along the runway dressed like Miss Kitty from "Gunsmoke."Since then, there have been men in corsets, women in butt-baring body suits, dogs in fishnet stockings, a candle-lit fashion show in a subway station and a fashion riot in a rainstorm.

The shapes are familiar, but the fabrics make the differenc this season. Old favorites like the motorcycle jacket get refinished in metallics, denim, silk, vinyl and even velvet.

GIRLS* Something bright, especially hot pink* Printed leggings with trapeze tops* Denim -- studded, embroidered or embellished* Denim minis and loose-fitting jeans* Anything plaid* Pocket T-shirts* Motorcycle and bomber-style jackets* The boxy boyfriend blazerBOYS* Brights such as orange* Motorcycle and varsity jackets* Washed-out denim* Plaid shirts, ties and pants* Baggy jeans* Printed elastic waist pants* Loose-fitting rayon shirts* One-pocket T-shirts* T-shirts...

IF STUDENTS ARE as bright as their clothes this year, test scores will take off.With fuchsias and purples, screaming yellows and tumultuous teals, this is not the year for the timid of taste in children's and teen's clothing.Even coats and jackets are besieged with color blocking -- a patchwork of rectangular swatches of hues -- and prints too -- that used to be considered at war with one another. Black accents often prevent a total color collision.This color bonanza applies to boys' as well as girls' wear.