Silk

GOOD FRIENDS HAPPILY GATHER UNDER A restaurant's bright striped canopy on a balmy summer day. The ladies wear silk dresses and stylish hats, the gentlemen suits or sailing outfits with yellow straw boaters. Among them are actresses Ellen Andree and Jeanne Samary, painter Gustave Caillebotte, financier and newspaper editor Charles Ephrussi and the redoubtable Baron Raoul Barbier -- war hero, former mayor of colonial Saigon, indefatigable bon vivant and aficionado of fine racehorses and women.

If your stomach is in Windsor knots about what to get dad for Father's Day, don't despair. This year pop may actually welcome that 3-by-10-inch box containing the old standby gift: a tie.An explosion of new styles has hit the menswear market over the past few years. Ties have become a way for men to express themselves, with patterns and colors ranging from screaming to shy.This spring, ties are wider, currently stabilized at 4 inches; brighter, in colors like fuchsia, purple and chartreuse, and patterns are bold, bold, bold.

Frank E. Toscani, 89, who as the American military governor of a small Sicilian town during World War II replaced a cherished 700-year-old bell that Mussolini had had melted for munitions, died Wednesday at a hospital in Nyack, N.Y. He lived in Pearl River, N.Y. The town, Licata, became Adano in John Hersey's novel "A Bell for Adano," which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1945. The story's hero, Major Joppolo, was modeled on Mr. Toscani, who was a major when Mr. Hersey, a reporter for Time magazine, spent several days visiting him. Mr. Toscani received a number of military honors, including the Bronze Star and Legion of Merit; the rank of Officer of the Order of the British Empire; and the rank of commander from the Crown of Italy.

No matter how long you study one of Chris K. Palmer's silk "Shadowfolds," its mystery never completely unfolds. Hexagons, squares and triangles intertwine, spiral and twist into ever more complex variations with indescribable grace. A Bach cantata comes to mind. So does a flurry of snowflakes, each unique but based on the same natural blueprint. You may spend hours meditating on these designs and still have no clue where Palmer started, how he painstakingly manipulated the silk into the three-dimensional, infinitely symmetrical shapes called tesselations or plotted the pattern's journey so it ventures ingeniously from one path to the next.

Even though it's always a packed house at the Fullwood Foundation benefit and awards breakfast, it's easy to spot foundation volunteers. They're the ones dressed in red. Volunteer Vicki Lynn Jenkins was a particular standout at Martin's West. Her outfit started with her plaid peep-toe pumps, says the 53-year-old property manager for Edgewood Management Corp. "I found them on sale, and then went looking for a suit to match them." Dressing up comes naturally to this Baltimore resident. "I grew up in a Christian-based family.

Even though it's always a packed house at the Fullwood Foundation benefit and awards breakfast, it's easy to spot foundation volunteers. They're the ones dressed in red. Volunteer Vicki Lynn Jenkins was a particular standout at Martin's West. Her outfit started with her plaid peep-toe pumps, says the 53-year-old property manager for Edgewood Management Corp. "I found them on sale, and then went looking for a suit to match them." Dressing up comes naturally to this Baltimore resident.

Dressing up with L.L. BeanL.L. Bean, the Maine catalog company best known for rugged basics, has branched out. This month, it's introducing Freeport Studio, a line of clothes and accessories for women who eventually have to change out of their hiking shorts and T-shirts.The collection, which includes sandwashed silk dresses, drawstring pants and raffia totes, marks the first new brand in the company's 86-year history.``This is something our customer has been asking for ... garments that fit the Monday-through-Friday part of their lives,'' says Fran Philip, senior vice president of Freeport Studio.

All the trimmings complete an entree and make a meal more festive. But when it comes to decorating, there are widely varying appetites for trims. One camp sees garnishes on upholstery, curtains, bedding and lamps as a visual feast to be devoured. Another view is that furnishings dripping in ornamentation are like too much salt, which can ruin a good recipe. In moderation, trims can add to an interior. The French have a word for it: passementerie, which describes a sumptuous style of silk trimmings that graced the palaces of Louis XIV, XV and XVI. Passementerie was a symbol of wealth.

Sonya Taylor lives in what her brother calls a beautiful jewel box. In a space of only 530 square feet, she is blanketed in international furnishings, paintings and decorative art. The quiet of her tiny domain is periodically punctuated by the coo-coo of a clock in her tiny kitchen. "I had to get used to city noise," said this 71-year-old retired government worker and volunteer political activist. "Now, I hardly notice it." Taylor purchased her efficiency condominium 23 years ago, having left a large home in Monkton after a divorce.

IN 1970, there were few people on the beach who looked better than my mother in her pink Pucci bikini.When we're together even today people can't believe that the petite, blonde woman is my mother. But in a bathing suit in the '60s and '70s -- in that Pucci bathing suit -- Mom was, well, a babe. A terribly fashionable babe.Both my mother and grandmother sought out the bright, geometric patterns that are the trademark of Florentine designer Marchese Emilio Pucci di Barsento. Those shots of bright color were, I thought, totally out of character for two such conservative dressers.