Fashion: Been There, Seen That, Done That

The shirts sound off with letters dense as coal and inches high. They are oversized Ts, big enough to sleep two stevedores comfortably and colored like signal flags. Wearable broadsides: CHOOSE LIFE. HEROIN FREE ZONE. PRESERVE THE RAIN FORESTS. EDUCATION NOT MISSILES.

Such shirts are the most noted creation of British Designer Katharine Hamnett, who showed up at a 1984 London fashion-biz reception to shake hands with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sporting a T that had something rather pointed to say about the presence of Pershing missiles in Europe. "I didn't realize the effect wearing that T shirt would have on my reputation," the designer insists. The incident, well covered in the press, did make her a bit notorious, which was a novelty. She had, after all, already spent some time being one of the best designers in England.

Hamnett, 39, has a deft hand for funk, and her clothes for men and women look lived-in even when they are freshly pressed, like something hung on a wooden peg behind the back door. She works largely and most successfully in utilitarian fabrics: cotton drill, lining silk and, for the coming season, leather that seems to have been ridden over by a motorcycle gang on a rainy Sunday. Her lines are loose and simple, the detailing fine and witty and heavy on the pockets. The clothes are not remakes of hardy perennials like parkas and biker jackets, but revisions of them. Even her dressier duds have the aged-in feeling of favored sportswear. Maybe better than anyone else just now, Hamnett captures the roughed-up elegance of the everyday. Everything she makes is a little playful, like her swimsuits, and as homey as a pair of jeans. And her denims, indeed, tempt the wearer to apostasy: they just could be better than Levi's.

Hamnett's influence is strong all over the fashion range, from the well- crafted intricacies of Marithe and Francois Girbaud to the heavy assimilations of Go Silk, a new American line that seems to have been entirely inspired by Hamnett's deft work with lining fabric. "I was called 'possibly the most copied designer working today' in the Observer," Hamnett reflects, managing to sound proud and a touch rueful at the same time. Her clothes are available all around the U.S., but the fullest range can be found at the designer's showcase store on London's Brompton Road. Originally an automobile garage, the shop has enough floor space to comfortably accommodate menswear, women's clothes and a Roman chariot race. "There could be more clothes in it," frets Danish-born Fashion Entrepreneur Peder Bertelsen, who backs Hamnett's retail enterprises on the designer's home turf. "Katharine's very exciting to work with," he adds. "She shouts at me and calls me names I can't find in the English dictionary."