"I am Miss America" — Is**c has arrived

"I love this." Isaac Mizrahi hovers a little nervously in his airy SoHo showroom, a newly slim version of himself dressed in signature Broadway choreographer uniform: black pants, black cashmere sweater, black slippers. He points at the passing model, twirling a finger at her outfit for the benefit of a small group of North American press assembled to view the spring '97 line. "Very versatile piece, the longer jacket." Pause. "I want to see it on everybody tomorrow." (Laughter.)

It's the Isaac Mizrahi show, and the latest episode is Is**c—that's with two stars, please—his first-ever secondary line. Having designed an eponymous collection for the last 10 years, the Brooklyn-born artiste has entered the fray of more mass-appeal "diffusion" lines from American designers currently hitting the market—lines that are intended to capitalize on the reputation of their pricier main collections. After Is**c, which made its debut in Canada last fall exclusively at Holt Renfrew, this spring saw the arrival of Oscar by Oscar de la Renta, Lauren, Ralph Lauren's third rung on the women's side, and Donna Karan's D by DKNY, which falls somewhere between her bridge collection, DKNY, and her designer label collection, Donna Karan New York.

The timing for IsHHc couldn't be better, for the edge Mizrahi has over his fellow 7th Avenue colleagues is showbiz. Ever since his Diana Vreeland-meets-Richard Simmons star turn in Unzipped, the 1995 documentary tracing the making of his fall '94 collection—which yielded such immortal lines as: "I don't need to go to Australia to do collections about those places. I can do them from a Flintstones episode"—people tend to stand and stare at the designer, waiting for him to say something funny. Which can be a distraction from the fashion show at hand. You have to wonder: can show business be good for the fashion business? "Ultimately, I don't think that celebrity or hype or advertising sells product," he says. "I think that product sells product. Value sells product. But the celebrity and the hype allow you to consider what piece of lifestyle you're looking at. It's not just a dress you're buying, it's a bit of personality." And what is Is**c's personality? "Is**c is all about these busy women executives who have families and go crazy," he says. "It's like, 'I have to wax my floor and have sex with my husband at the same time,' you know what I mean?"

The Is**c line, like Mizrahi's main collection, is a burst of fresh glamour, with a little Mary Tyler Moore obsession on the side. It features the colour sense that he has embraced as the trademark of his "art" and the trendy pieces like flared pants "which I've been doing for six years, and finally it seems like people want to buy them," he says. "I think people need clarity, so I try to keep it very simple, very innocent. Because you know what? Even if you're on antidepressants, you don't want to look like you're on antidepressants, you know?" His customer is confident and has a sense of humour. "If they have no sense of humour, they have no place wearing my clothes. Not that my clothes are a scream. Not that you laugh hysterically when you wear my clothes. It's just that they're very lighthearted."

Another model glides past the bubble gum-pink ottoman and the fashion-show patter continues. "Slim pants. It's definitely happening." But someone wants to know about his appearance on Jeopardy. "I love television. I have definite aspirations in that area. Soon there'll be a 24-hour Isaac Special—can you imagine what a nightmare that would be?" (Laughter.)