Will the clothes make the man?

Dallas' Todd Oldham wants to take his colorful fashions from sassy to classy--and reap big-time profits. But MTV's fashion designer won't have it easy in his quest to transcend trend.

A A A Comments By Miriam Rozen Thursday, Mar 26 1998

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The chandelier catches the eye first. It's an odd combination of crystal, tie-dyed shades, and gold-fringed tassels. Oldham designed it, of course, as well as the interiors of all of his boutiques. Below the chandelier is a large table; the garments that haven't yet sold from Oldham's spring collection are displayed around it in a circle. Off to the side, a TV screen plays video of the runway from that show. And on the walls--just as advertised on MTV--Oldham has plastered his home-made wallpaper. This time it's not photocopies, but yellowed foreign newspapers--particularly useful if you read Urdu, Hebrew or Arabic.

Across the street in the boutique is a display of the fashion designer's new hope: his blue jeans line, produced by Sun Apparel.

The names of his jeans cuts are typically clever. You can buy your Todd Oldham jeans in "sexy, easy, mixer, classic, stove, boot, or cozy" styles. On the same racks is the sportswear that Sun Apparel's Press touts. The prices aren't cheap; a sweatshirt will set you back $128. (Quite reasonable, compared to the $1,100 translucent beaded black dress in the couture section.)

No customers are buying the jeans this early Monday morning in February. Indeed, only two customers, just window-shopping, even come near the door of the boutique at this unlikely hour.

Oldham's mass-market dreams may take longer to launch than clothing fads spawned by MTV. In Dallas, for example, Oldham products are still inexplicably hard to find. Dallas' Neiman Marcus stores didn't seem to pay much attention to the spring line, and just last week, you could buy some crown-labeled leftovers at bargain prices--a $130 shirt for a mere 30 bucks--at Neiman's Last Call in Austin.

But Izzy Ezrailson, who owns Up Against the Wall, a 16-unit specialty chain that began in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., and targets young, hip customers in that region, says he can't keep Oldham stuff on the racks. "Is Todd Oldham really middle-America?" Ezrailson asks rhetorically. "It doesn't matter. He sells."

Sun Apparel's Press is certain he's pegged a winner in Oldham. "Anything he touches," he says, "is lucrative.