Michael Jackson, as we all know, can...

Michael Jackson, as we all know, can wear something once--a single glove, white socks or a leather jacket--and the rest of the world follows. Whether this particular item will catch on is questionable, but there was Jackson at the Dorothy Emerson Antique Show and Sale at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium Saturday, his face half obscured by a blue mask similar to those worn by surgeons. Jackson, dressed in a black jacket, rolled-up jeans, white socks, black shoes and a felt fedora, didn’t hang around long but was there long enough to give the dealers pause. Why was he wearing the mask? We never found out. Some thought that the auditorium’s security people asked him to in order to prevent a riot. (False, Dorothy Emerson says.) Others guessed that he chose to hide his identity. Some surmised that it was there to prevent him from picking up--or spreading--germs. Emerson added that when Jackson stopped to admire some bracelets, the vendor--more familiar with antiquity than present-day pop culture--didn’t recognize the singer, assumed the masked man was a thief “or a goof” and called the police. “Heaven knows,” Emerson chuckled a few days later, “he scared the exhibitors almost to pieces.”

Things are going to be very steamy next season on “Falcon Crest.” How steamy? The show’s costume supervisor, Shirley Cunningham, just bought 72 pieces of Lore lingerie--virtually the entire fall collection, designer Lore Caulfield reports. Cunningham says the lingerie--from slinky nightgowns to robes--is to be worn by all the women in the cast, Jane Wyman and newcomer Apollonia Kotero (of “Purple Rain” fame) included. One of the drop-dead outfits is a silver glen-plaid silk lame coat, camisole and pants, but Cunningham isn’t sure who will wear it. However, we can all rest assured that new cast member Morgan Fairchild will be well under-dressed, because Cunningham did select specifically for her a silk charmeuse decollete camisole with matching tap pants and lace-trimmed teddy.

Ships came in for some California designers at the sixth annual Cutty Sark Men’s Fashion Awards in New York recently. Paul Bianculli and Victor de la Rosa of the San Francisco-based firm Bianculli sailed away with the most promising U.S. designer award for their collection of sportswear, which is made of hand-woven fabrics. The other winner from the West Coast was Lisa Lyons, a student at Los Angeles’ Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design, who won the outstanding student designer award. Lyons made a distinct impression by wearing a backless dress and by stating that she hoped to be back soon--presumably, to carry away one of the other awards. Additional Cutty winners included Alexander Julian, outstanding U.S. designer; Gianfranco Ruffini, outstanding sportswear designer; shoe designer Kenneth Cole, outstanding accessories designer; Gianfranco Ferre, outstanding international designer; Yves Saint Laurent, career achievement award. And in the new “designer laureate” category, Giorgio Armani, who had previously been named outstanding international designer three times, was the winner.

The Coty Fashion Critics awards have been discontinued. That’s the old news. It happened last week, when Coty officials formally announced, after months of rumors, that they would indeed stop sponsoring what used to be the most glamorous and important designer awards in the fashion industry. The new news is this: Eleanor Lambert, who organized the Cotys in 1942 and conducted them for 38 years (until she withdrew five years ago), says she’s had “several calls” from fashion-industry people who would like to continue the awards “in another form”--without the Coty affiliation. The “other form” would include a major television show, Lambert says. In fact, she says she resigned from the Coty stewardship because she “felt that unless it could be a TV special” like the Academy Awards show, “it had gone as far as it could go.” Lambert pooh-poohs those who say the new Council of Fashion Designers awards have replaced the Cotys. “The CFDA is very fine, and I endorse it heartily. It rewards photographers, models, retailers and lots of others in the industry.” But what Lambert thinks the world needs now is a splashy TV awards show for designers only. And if she can get the right elements together, she says, she may just do it.

Geoffrey Beene lunched with Listen this week, in a distinctly jovial mood. He was slimmer, sportier (yes, he wore his signature sweater) and happier than when last we met. The reason? Word had just come through, he said, that the name of his new fragrance had cleared legal hurdles, and the scent will definitely be called Celebration. This was cause to rejoice, Beene explained, because the first name he chose was Pastel, which turned out to be the name of inexpensive pens sold all over Europe, and the folks at Jacqueline Cochran (who produce and market his scents here and abroad) couldn’t get copyright clearance on it. Beene, whose Grey Flannel scent is a hit on two continents, sashayed with Listen through the Rodeo Collection and was “amazed” by the crowds. “I feel as if I’m at the World’s Fair,” he said.

Tea from Fortnum & Mason in London and freshly baked scones were being served, but Robin Plunket and David Keys are big on Hollywood flash, so the event they held at their Plunket Keys boutique recently was hardly what you’d call a proper British afternoon tea. First of all, the paparazzi came. (Emma Samms of “Dynasty” was a major attraction.) Secondly, most of the revelers came dressed as if they were going to a premiere, sashaying up to the teapots in bared shoulders and their best trashy jewelry. There was one exception: 18-year-old Claudia Wells, a fresh-face Brooke Shields look-alike, who was dressed in a sweet, old-fashioned navy-and-white sailor dress. It turns out that Wells is one of the stars of Steven Spielberg’s “Back to the Future,” which opens July 3.

Are you a DKDC, an FF or an IID? Alexander Julian tells Listen that he’s divided men up into three categories: Don’t Know, Don’t Care; Fashion Fatality, and Intelligent Interested Dresser. Guess which one Julian says he designs for.