Ralph Lauren

High Point, N.C.--Well-worn cowboy boots and sweat-stained Stetsons. Iron horseshoes and coiled leather lariats. Red and black buffalo-check flannel and rough-bark logs. Deeply fringed suede and butter-soft leather.Furniture retailers and interior designers from all over the world who gathered here for the massive fall International Home Furnishings Market last week were treated to a nostalgic trip back in time to America's Old West at dozens of showrooms.From the ridiculous (a lamp made out of a battered old cowboy boot)

One apparel notion that has been selling, retail executives said, is the new Ralph Lauren Polo Bear clothing. Instead of his famous polo pony, Lauren has been putting the image of a cuddly bear onto things like T-shirts and dress shirts.Bears can also be found screened onto the back of a jean jacket, handknit on the front of a sweater or embroidered as a jacquard down the front of a tie. There are also stuffed teddy bears, at $450. The Polo/Ralph Lauren store at 72d Street and Madison Avenue in Manhattan sold out its stock of 200 bears over the weekend.

In the early '60s, while other would-be designers were in New York soaking up as much artsy inspiration as they could, young Barry Bricken was in . . . College Park, earning a degree in . . . accounting.But who ever said accountants can't have fun, aren't inspireand probably wouldn't make anybody's list of most-likely-to-succeed as fashion designers?With a fall line that includes wool skirts with dramatiblue-and-coral color blocking for women and jackets in washed silk for men, two new stores in Dallas and Chicago, a clothing business that topped $25 million last year, to say nothing of his very own airplane, Baltimore native Mr. Bricken has proven that business sense makes very good fashion sense indeed.