Prehistoric Chic -- Dino-Mania Makes Tracks Across World Of Fashionable Design

It's the dawning of a new millennium for dinosaurs. Good thing, too, because retro dressing needed another era to draw from.

Now, thanks to the summer movie blockbuster "Jurassic Park," there's a trend that's prehistoric and positively sci-fi.

The extinct reptile, whose biggest fans have been preschoolers and paleontologists, is showing up as a theme for diamond jewelry, designer dresses, silk neckties and boxer shorts. Oh, and there's plenty of kids' stuff, too.

A diamond brooch with a stegosaurus staring into a pool of water, designed by Stephanie Occhipinti of New York, and a stegosaurus skeleton brooch with a spine of diamonds from Lori Gyl Mahler of Allentown, Pa., are part of a traveling museum exhibit called "The Art of Diamonds." Each of the brooches has a retail price of about $7,000. The Diamond Information Center says the link of diamond and dinosaur is a natural. Although diamonds were discovered only about 3,000 years ago, their genesis is even earlier than that of the dinosaur.

For those bent on catching the trend at the high-fashion level, Nicole Miller offers dinosaur-print column dresses, bell-bottoms, midriff tops, bikinis and bodysuits. The separates range from $50 for a silk tank top to $400 for a silk georgette stretch column dress.

"There's a real public fascination now with the idea of extinction," says Bud Konheim, president of the New York fashion house. "We're at the end of the 20th century, and everybody is on the verge of asking what's next.

"Dinosaurs didn't happen yesterday, and we can learn something from them. It's the story of an animal that got too big and couldn't control itself. The dinosaur was the ultimate Chapter 11."

For fall, Miller has men in mind. There'll be a dino-mite camp shirt, $160; cummerbund and bow tie sets, $110, for more formal occasions; neckties, $60; and boxer shorts, $50, all in silk.

Ralph Marlin is marketing cotton boxer shorts, $16, of dinosaurs wearing boxers. Come Christmas, there'll be polyester ties, about $20, of dinosaurs in Santa hats.

"The promotion of `Jurassic Park' has certainly given the theme a significant push," says Anita Rusch, vice president of marketing for the Milwaukee company. "Dinosaurs fit in with our product mix quite well, and they're just fun, particularly for our target audience of young men, 18 to 24 years old."

Joe Boxer hopped on the trend in April with racing dinosaurs on "Mesozoic Marathon" cotton boxers for men and boys, $14 and $10. A matching men's T-shirt is $17. For boys, there's a "Before-and-After" T-shirt with a dinosaur on the front, a big bone on the back, $12 in sizes 8 to 20.

For wee ones who want to be a part of dino-mania, there's good ol' Barney, the plush purple dinosaur of kids' TV fame. J.C. Penney has the goods with his logo, including a Barney T-shirt, $10, and cardigan, $13.

"Barney is popular because the children relate to him and they want their hero on their shirts," says Barbara Bierman, Penney's publicity manager in Dallas. "He's nonthreatening, he's very approachable - and he's got an emerald green patch on his tummy."

Healthtex also has kids' multicolored dino-print shirts ranging from $9 to $15. The Museum of Natural History in New York has an infant's stretch suit, red with little yellow dinosaurs, for $16.95.

The museum is a virtual gold mine for things dinosauric: T-shirts; baseball caps; backpacks; cosmetic bags and eyeglass cases; keyrings; neckties; and jewelry.

The silk ties, with an overall pattern of dinosaurs against a background of red, taupe, burgundy or navy, are $25 each. The tropical dino silk tie, with touches of green, is $35. Jewelry ranges from $2 for a gold-tone child's bracelet to sterling-silver earrings, necklaces, pins and cufflinks, the latter $68 a pair.

The Nature Company, with 120 stores nationwide (including Seattle and Bellevue), is also chock-full of dinosaur T-shirts, from $13 to $17, for the whole family. For a smaller, more enduring statement, there's a sterling-silver stegosaurus tie tack, $18, or gold- and silver-tone brachiosaurus and T-rex pierced earrings, $5.95.

"The Art of Diamonds" is an exhibition of nature-inspired diamond jewelry and photography touring U.S. museums. It will be at Seattle's Frye Art Museum from July 26-Aug. 15.