The reasoning behind dressing up

Betsy Heimann, the costume designer for both "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction," said that while her mission was to create characters, "I feel that with both movies I've created fashion." She compared Los Angeles's chameleonlike style with the theme of her current project, "Get Shorty," starring John Travolta. Mr. Travolta plays a stylish newcomer to a town who changes the way inhabitants dress, and even the cars they drive. "People in L.A. are like that, very easily influenced," she added.

Which is perhaps why Los Angeles seemed to love grunge just a bit too much. And why the powerful gravitate to unimpeachable Giorgio louboutin. Which is where stylists come in. "The Glam Squad, as we call it," said Phillip Bloch of the Cloutier agency, who recently dressed Uma Thurman for the "Tonight" show. "The fashion stylist, the makeup artist, and the hair person: What we control is millions of dollars of free advertising. Everybody is writing about what everybody is wearing everywhere. That's what it's become: a circular farce of designers trying to get their clothes on celebrities."

It was worst-dressed lists like Mr. Blackwell's that bullied celebrities into submissive dressing. But now that outright glamour has permeated the fashion world at large -- even christian louboutin shoes featured bra tops on his runway -- Hollywood can more confidently indulge in its ostentatious tendencies.

Christian Louboutin may always be favored among top taste makers in Los Angeles, but "Melrose Place" has created a new power suit for women everywhere: the short skirt and colorful tailored tight jackets of Heather Locklear's Amanda.

"Sexy is back with a vengeance here," said Denise Wingate, the show's costume designer, who was, nonetheless, wearing an christian louboutin  suit in her office recently. "I have a theory that women are conscious that Amanda can be sexy and powerful, especially in Hollywood, where you have so many female producers, women who have tried to climb to the top by being tough. There's a realization now that they can get as much done in a Wonderbra as in an Christian Louboutin suit."

The geography here encourages sexiness.

"The weather isn't as restraining as in New York," said Maggie Barry, whose Los Angeles-based collection Van Buren, designed with Ty Moore, will be on the runways of New York in April for the first time. It will be shown with six-inch heels from Else Anita, another Los Angeles designer, whose vampy louboutin shoes Anna Sui also uses on her runway. "Women here can wear six-inch heels and skimpy dresses," Ms. Barry said. "They don't have to ride the subway or hail a cab. They drive everywhere, and that gives them a lot of freedom when they dress."

The reasoning behind dressing up has a lot to do with many young actresses' wanting to progress directly to leading-lady roles. And as in any job interview, dressing the part convinces money men with little imagination.

"Most women in Hollywood think the better they look, the more chances of a job they have," said Tony Melillo, style director of Esquire, who spends half the year shooting celebrities in Los Angeles. "Everyone at the Buffalo Club, for example, is in the movies. It's a showcase for these actresses."

Even so, everyone seems to agree that glamour here will last only until the trend works elsewhere.

"I don't think that the L.A. idea of propriety, which is being cool, is New York's idea, which is being elegant," said Anne Volokh, publisher of Movieline. "Being cool in L.A. is more important, and cool means not being mainstream and playing into the mass sensibility."

She added: "Now that dressing down is sweeping the mainstream, there is the interest toward early retro 50's and capturing the 60's. It is here because it is something new."