FASHION: Germany's First

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In Atlantic City last week, 18 countries from all over the world showed their latest women's fashions at the Second International Fashion Review. Biggest news at the show was the first postwar collection of German clothes to reach the U.S. They were the product of Germany's leading designer, Hans Gehringer.

To show them off, Gehringer picked Susanne Erichsen, Miss Germany of 1950, who stepped right out of Russian labor camps into the world of high fashion. When the Red army marched into Berlin in 1945, she was shipped off to a camp in the Ural Mountains, did everything from mine coal to carry bricks on a Russian construction project. Designer Gehringer's clothes were as good-looking as his model. Samples: a trim, black & white silk print afternoon dress with a detachable overskirt that can be removed and worn as a shoulder cape; a white organza evening gown with a taffeta underskirt, hand-embroidered and studded with rhinestones (see cut). Although the clothes were brought in duty-free and for exhibit purposes only, it looked as if the Germans would have little trouble selling their designs in the U.S.