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Mary Tyler Moore applauded the collection from a * front-row seat, and so did Princess Yasmin Aga Khan Jeffries, Patty Hearst Shaw, Patricia Kennedy Lawford and Alice de Blanc Cramer. Alice may have been the only La Jollan among the 125 clients invited to view Arnold Scaasi's made-to-order finery, but you would have recognized many another face in the crowd.

TX Soprano Beverly Sills was a front-row rooter, too -- seated next to baritone Pat Lawford. They and other spectators whipped out their spectacles to study such Scaasi conceits as skirts made of woven ribbon, a wedding dress fashioned from frosted silver lame, and a colorful fox jacket -- half of it dyed red, half of it dyed blue -- that was shown with faded jeans and high-heeled, red-satin sandals. That frisky outfit gave the gang a good giggle. Among those who turned out to cheer Barbara Bush's favorite dressmaker were Austine Hearst, Nina Griscom, Anne Johnson (the first Mrs. Henry Ford II), author Marie Brenner ("House of Dreams: The Bingham Family of Louisville"), and Anne Cox Chambers, who is said to be worth $2.5 billion. According to The New York Times, Scaasi's couture things start at $5,500, so it helps to be worth $2.5 billion. Others who squeezed into the Fifth Avenue salon were Norris Church (she's Mrs. Norman Mailer), novelist/editor Shirley Lord Rosenthal and pretty-as-a-picture Gayfryd Steinberg, coping with a cold she caught in Moscow. (Shirley to Gayfryd: "How's your cold?" Gayfryd to Shirley: "Better. I'm kissable.") Fashion pundits Eleanor Lambert and Carrie Donovan were there, along with Carroll Petrie, Edna Morris, CeCe Kieselstein-Cord, Patty Raynes (her parents are the Marvin Davises) and Marjorie Reed, once Scaasi's muse and directrice. Marjorie was among the Nell Carter fans who rushed backstage to hug the rotund entertainer ("Ain't Misbehavin'") after her show at the Criterion Cabaret. Bob Nahas, a close friend, teased Nell about the spangled acreage of her costume. "That dress," he decided, "used to belong to the Supremes." een on the New York scene: Sir James Murray, former British consul general in San Francisco (circa 1970-73), savoring a scotch and soda at The Brook Club and recalling happy times in La Jolla with the late Lita and Jack Vietor ... Bobby Short, ordering the grilled loin of swordfish at 150 Wooster, this fickle city's restaurant-of-the-moment ... Nancy Kissinger, lunching at La Cote Basque ... Mystery writer Lawrence Block, dispensing autographs at a Fifth Avenue BookFair (and sending regards to Phyllis Brown of San Diego's Grounds for Murder bookstore) ... Mark Hampton, greeting 300 guests at a party to launch his new book, "On Decorating," and signing it for the likes of Lee Radziwill Ross and Nan Kempner ... Financier Alexander Papamarkou, returning to his Fifth Avenue apartment after a dash to Denmark for the silver wedding anniversary of ex-King Constantine and Queen Anne-Marie of Greece. Prince Charles of England, former Empress Farah Diba of Iran and Georgette and Bob Mosbacher were on the guest list, too. Before flying to Copenhagen, Papamarkou paused in La Jolla long enough to give a little dinner for Helen Copley, the Richard Cramers, David Copley and Juliann and Jack Ford. @Art: 1 PIC @Art Caption: A model shows a red-and-blue fox coat to, from left, Beverly Sills, Mary Tyler Moore, Pippa Scott and Alice de Blanc Cramer.