Date: Sun, 1 May 94 10:12 GMT From: gwyn@thunder.indstate.edu (Thomas W. Holt Jr.) GAYS IN THE FASHION INDUSTRY: WHAT'S COVERED UP IS REVEALING By FRANK DECARO Newsday GIANNI Versace -- the bearded, vivacious Italian designer who lives and works by the credo more is more -- was sitting in his baroque studio in Milan almost two years ago, talking about how he bought a palatial home on Ocean Drive in that mecca of Florida hip, South Beach. I will never forget that conversation. ''I was on the way to Cuba,'' he said, ''and I stopped just for 10 hours in Miami. I said to the driver, don't bring me to anything boring, just bring me to where the action is, where the young people go. He dropped me at News Cafe. After five minutes -- five minutes! -- I said to my boyfriend, Antonio, 'You can go to Cuba!' I stayed 15 days and bought the house right away.'' SPEAKING OUT Such a multimillion-dollar impulse purchase is nothing in fashion. But a designer of Versace's international stature speaking openly about having a boyfriend . . . well, that's something that doesn't happen every day. Though it's one of the worst-kept secrets in the world that the fashion industry is dominated by gay men, few designers talk to the press about their homosexuality or their relationships. And when they do take a journalist into their confidence, it's almost always off the record. Speculation about who is gay and who isn't gay in fashion reached a fever pitch last week with the publication of ''Obsession,'' the unauthorized biography of Calvin Klein by Steven Gaines and Sharon Churcher. The authors, one of whom previously muckraked Halston, suggest that Klein, who is married to the former Kelly Rector and has a daughter from a previous marriage, is bisexual. They say he had an affair with the late designer Perry Ellis, often fell in love with straight men, spent summers in the Fire Island Pines on Long Island and paid for sex with men, including porn stars. Published reports say Klein -- through a channel of friendly entertainment moguls derisively called the Velvet Mafia -- tried to have the book quashed for $5 million. The New York Post dedicated an entire column to the most tawdry of the ''allegations'' last week. Fashion insiders gave it one big yawn. Really, how shocking is it to learn that someone who designs dresses, sells cologne and plasters Marky Mark in his underwear on bus shelters may be bisexual? Sadly, Klein's sexuality -- whatever it is -- is being reported as an ''allegation,'' right alongside tales of drug abuse, plastic surgery and '70s-era good-time debauchery. As of last week, Klein was not commenting on any of it. He has never been a tell-all type. When it comes to details about his personal life, Klein is as spare in interviews as he is in his design philosophy. Not Versace. He has always been as colorful as his clothes and just as raucous. ''I don't think a gay person has to be afraid,'' Versace said that day in Milan. ''You don't have to go with a flag and say 'I'm this' or 'I'm that,' but I cannot be a liar. I'm more interested to know the real personality of a gay man or a straight man, not to know a gay man who wants to be straight or a 'straight' man who's gay. We are what we are. And, I don't think we're in bad company (with) all the creative persons who are gay.'' OPENLY GAY DESIGNERS Certainly, there are some very high-profile ''out'' gays in fashion. Isaac Mizrahi, Todd Oldham, John Bartlett, Marc Jacobs and Jean-Paul Gaultier are among the few big names who have spoken freely in recent years. But for every star designer who is open about his homosexuality, there are many more gay and lesbian designers who don't say a word. Klein has a right to privacy, I guess. And he has never hidden the fact that many of his closest friends -- most notably David Geffen -- are openly gay. But out gays find it puzzling and aggravating that an industry that prides itself on being on the vanguard of pop culture is lagging behind when it comes to the gay rights agenda. Some suggest that designers don't talk about their sexuality for fear of losing customers. Mainstream designers, selling underwear and jeans to customers who may be less comfortable with anything-but-straight people, may have some cause to worry. That's a good part of Klein's business. But in the world of high fashion -- a world in which Klein is also very much a player -- the risks seem negligible. Designer Jacobs said several years ago during his tenure designing for the Perry Ellis company: ''I'm not kidding myself about who fashion people are. Women love gay men. That's not an issue. . . . I can't imagine that a person who would say 'I'm not going to buy clothes from a designer who's gay' would want to buy my clothes.'' Being out, Jacobs said, is ''really about educating people" People can't really hate someone they know.'' Still, he does not believe that out gays are ''better homosexuals because we live our lives openly and they don't.'' For some designers, being out does not come so naturally. ''I was very fortunate to grow up with people who encouraged whatever I did,'' Jacobs said. ''I didn't grow up with rules. It was never about . . . this sexual preference is right and that sexual preference is wrong.'' Jacobs continued: ''It was just not something that was discussed in polite society. People put on that facade of being married or being straight or whatever. I just think it's a different time. The times have become more accepting of honesty. There are still many people left who come from a previous generation. But then there's this whole crop of people who wouldn't think of discussing it -- not because they don't want to talk about it, but because it's just the way it is. It's a non-issue to them.'' Whether this controversy is a non-issue to Klein's customers remains to be seen.