FASHIONS FOR SPRING

Men's warm weather fashions have, alas, come pretty close to full circle. Back around the turn of the century, when there was no such thing as warm weather fashions, gentlemen wore their winter suits in summer--and were both correct and terrifically uncomfortable. Then, in the great relaxation of the twenties, correctness and heavy clothing were sacrificed to comfort. By the beginning of the thirties, a man could be unashamedly comfortable and woefully dishevelled in a baggy seersucker suit.

Now, however, it looks like comfort is once again on the way out. Creases are sharpening, suit materials are stiffening and even thickening. The sugar coating to this bitter pill is a spectrum of new colors--but these colors would make any pill taste sickly sweet. Odd jackets in pink-and-white stripes, odder sweaters in natural-and-vicuna stripes, tight beach pants in canary yellow: the list is horrifying and endless.

The easiest way out is to get a pair of dark glasses. But another sensible solution is to ignore these new fashions, and (with only one exception) to stick with the somewhat less elegant, out-moded, and wearable clothes still offered. A basic warm-weather ward-robe should include probably one good dark two-piece suit (worsted or Dacron is your best bet); a seersucker or, if you will, cord suit, a pair of dark slacks, possibly a pair of white ducks, a couple of odd jackets, and plenty of lightweight sports shirts. (A cost run down on the above: dark suit, $60-$70; seersucker suit, $40-$50; slacks, $20-$25; jackets, about $30; sports shirts no more than $3 apiece.)

The one acceptable item on the new fashion list is the white linen suit, just brought back from years in the closet. White linen, as survivers of the British raj can tell you, is that unique frabric which unites comfort and elegance: it keeps you cool, and it retains its shape.

Don't swelter, and don't, for goodness sake, invest in the new decorator-color shades. You need follow only those two rules, which are actually the one rule, forget about fashions, and you can't go too far wrong in your summer purchases.