Shaping the '90s.

• Author: Romano-Benner, Norma
• Position: Hispanics fashion designers newest collections

THE FASHION HISTORIAn Georgina O'Hara states her passionate belief that people should take fashion more seriously than they do. For her, the study of fashion can be at once, "a history lesson, a geography lesson, an economics lesson and mathematics lesson." She also believes that fashion is a window to a culture and a mirror of the movement.

Latin America, a region of snow-capped mountains and lush tropical forests, of painters Fernando Botero and Rufino Tamayo, of writers Isabel Allende and Octavio Paz, and scientists Franklin Chang Diaz and Cesar Milstein, has also contributed first-rate fashion designers to the world. Among the most outstanding are Dominican Oscar de la Renta, Venezuelan Carolina Herrera, Cubans Luis Estevez and Adolfo, and Spanish-born Fernando Pena. Although all of them have reached exalted status in the pantheon of international fashion, they are all the products of a Latin America that has reinforced the fabric of their creative spirit.

In September, 1990, at what has been billed by the local press "the most anticipated fashion show of the season," and "a paean to the richness and cultural diversity that is Latin America," the sixth annual Hispanic Designers Fashion Show presented the newest collections. This year's event was a showcase of contrasts--elegant and fanciful, sober and bubbly, dark and light, a study in chiaroscuro. The audience basked in a kaleidoscope of colors and textures, shapes and sounds that catapulted Latin America to center stage.

"We are blessed with a glamorous, exotic culture," said the show's director, Penny Harrison. "We are not one, but several peoples. We stand for excitement, romance, passion, and pride. These values are never more illustriously reflected than in the field of fashion. Oscar de la Renta, Adolfo, Carolina Herrera and Paloma Picasso, to name a few, bring to fashion not only their personal signatures, but the richness and glory of their heritage."

From the moment a woman is born in Latin America, she is bejeweled and put on display. Whether in Colombia or Costa Rica, Argentina or Panama, a girl's ears are pierced as soon as her umbilical cord is cut. She must, from the moment of birth--and regardless of her social status--look well-groomed, "bien arreglada."

"You just do it," says Carolina Herrera refering to this accepted social code. "It becomes second nature; you're taught that this is a way of showing respect for others and yourself. Being well-groomed is your...