Versace

A prince of fashion is dead, shot down on the steps of the palace he raised up from the kitsch of Miami Beach. An overdressed court mourns Italian designer Gianni Versace, who clothed royals and rockers, socialites and tarts and innumerable young fashion groupies who saved their pennies to cloak themselves in bits of instant sexiness that is the essence of Versace design.If few have owned or touched a genuine Versace, they certainly have seen the added wattage his clothes give a star clientele.

MIAMI -- Gianni Versace, a king of the fashion world whose flamboyant designs helped build a global empire, was killed yesterday on the steps of his palatial villa in chic South Beach.Police said they have a prime suspect in the case, Andrew Phillip Cunanan, one of the country's most wanted fugitives, who is already a suspect in four other slayings.Versace was shot twice in the head as he returned from an early morning walk to buy magazines.More than 12 hours later, Miami Beach police Chief Richard Barreto identified the suspect as Cunanan, 27, who was being sought in the slayings of four men from Minneapolis to New Jersey.

COLOR-SATURATED DRAMA by Gianni Versace, satin pink flowers by Lacroix, spare black and white shapes by Calvin Klein, traditional silhouettes by Ralph Lauren. We're not talking frocks, my dears, we're talking dinnerware.Designers have discovered that a table setting makes a strong fashion statement that any hostess of kindred taste can achieve without dieting down to a size 6.Tabletop collections, as they're called in the crockery industry, are the latest creative outlet for high-profile designers, and new ones are entering the market with each season.

NEW YORK -- Could it be that the spirit of global harmony left over from the United Nations anniversary celebration here has touched the fashion industry?If American designers were miffed about foreign designers kicking off the American spring collections for 1996, they were too polite to grouse about it.Donna Karan, who traditionally opens Fashion Week with her pumped up DKNY extravaganza, showed a day behind Gianni Versace's debut of his Versus line. How do you say chutzpah in Italian?The Versace shindig was everything a fashion event should be. There were stars -- tousled Timothy Hutton and Patti Labelle.

In the world of interior design, Eileen Brown has discovered one fashion truth: It helps if you dress the part.To this self-proclaimed "high-maintenance" dresser, that means devoting attention to her wardrobe and visiting designer showrooms in New York for the latest styles.Fine fabrics -- particularly silk and cashmere -- distinguish her style, but she also likes clothes that show her sense of humor."I'm lots of different people wrapped up in one," says Ms. Brown, 47, an interior designer who lives and works in Pikesville.

The French haute couture shows were predictably either very, very good or horrible. A little less predictable was the fact that the heroes of the showing season were both Italian.Gianni Versace of Milan and Valentino of Rome went to Paris with lustrous collections. Versace incorporated modern elements in distinguished-looking clothes, while Valentino achieved the requisite couture look in elegant clothes of quiet refinement.Christian Lacroix upheld the glory of the French with a wildly imaginative collection that brought him the only standing ovation and caused him to be pelted with flowers like an opera diva.

Taking a cue from Ralph Lauren, whose chic, pricey home designs have enamored fans across the Atlantic, some top European fashion designers, including Eman- uel Ungaro, Gianni Versace and Claude Montana, are trying to woo American clients with their own luxury home lines.Design buffs bored with traditional print sheets and flower-sprigged china can now sample Italian and French collections that emphasize bold colors, offbeat patterns and motifs inspired by everything from Roman ruins to African cloth.

Under all the lace and velvet, sturdy tweed and filmy chiffon, fall fashion's modern fantasies of Edwardian dandies, Russian officers and Scottish Highlanders are built on old-fashioned jackets.Romantic is the operative word this season, as international designers ransack archives to revive vintage jacket shapes drawn from across the centuries and across the globe, from the snowy Tyrolean Alps to the misty English hunt country.Blowing the dust off the foppish styles first set in the drawing rooms of late 19th-century London, designers on both sides of the Atlantic dote on dandy looks this season.

The restructuring of two giant American companies will cost the Maryland economy 267 jobs over the next several months.Integrated Systems Solutions Corp., a unit of the International Business Machine Corp., will transfer its "Solution Center" in Bethesda to offices in Southbury, Conn., and Sterling Forest, N.Y. -- a move that will affect 190 workers, according to spokesman J.P. Versace.Separately, Sears, Roebuck & Co. plans to terminate 77 employees at its Hunt Valley home improvement installation operation by the beginning of next month as part of its plan to reduce its corporate-wide work force by 50,000.

Paris -- If the gods who rule Paris fashion got it right this season we're all going to get into the black.Haute hippie black at Gianni Versace. Corseted and see-through black at Chanel, Christian Lacroix and Thierry Mugler. Jet-beaded black bras at Yves Saint Laurent. Furred and feathered black at Christian Dior. And from Givenchy, the man who brought us Audrey Hepburn in the little black dress, the new mother-of-chic little black suit.For U.S. retailers here looking for clear, new fashion direction that they will buy later in the form of the couturiers' less expensive ready-to-wear, the other big news of the season is the overall endorsement of many skirt lengths.