Suzi Chauvel

In much the same way Margaret Mead watched the natives of Samoa in the 1920s, Suzi Chauvel documents today's popular culture in America. After 15 years in fashion design--the last five as head designer for Ocean Pacific--Chauvel knows the radical changes taking place in fashion. "Even five years ago, trends didn't move this fast and change this quickly," said Chauvel, a Laguna Beach-based fashion and image consultant.

Angels fill their homes for different reasons: Suzi Chauvel collects them because she has been touched by the artists' passionate belief in their subject; Consuelo Chozas is keeping alive a 16th-Century Spanish art tradition that also reflects her own religious beliefs. For both women, the angels are important parts of their lives. "I started collecting angels about 15 years ago," Chauvel said. "I was walking down a street in Florence during a siesta time and spied an open door.

Angels fill their homes for different reasons: Suzi Chauvel collects them because she has been touched by the artists' passionate belief in their subject; Consuelo Chozas is keeping alive a 16th-Century Spanish art tradition that also reflects her own religious beliefs. For both women, the angels are important parts of their lives. "I started collecting angels about 15 years ago," Chauvel said. "I was walking down a street in Florence during a siesta time and spied an open door.

In much the same way Margaret Mead watched the natives of Samoa in the 1920s, Suzi Chauvel documents today's popular culture in America. After 15 years in fashion design--the last five as head designer for Ocean Pacific--Chauvel knows the radical changes taking place in fashion. "Even five years ago, trends didn't move this fast and change this quickly," said Chauvel, a Laguna Beach-based fashion and image consultant.

The City Council is scheduled Tuesday to set a June 14 deadline to submit applications for the planning and arts commissions. Terms will expire July 1 for Norm Grossman, Bob Chapman and Gregory Vail on the planning board and Kara Jacobs, Carol Reynolds, Suzi Chauvel and Jan Sattler, an alternate, on the arts board. The council will meet at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 505 Forest Ave.

OP Loses Another Executive: Another top executive of Ocean Pacific Sunwear Ltd., which filed for bankruptcy reorganization under Chapter 11 last week, said she is resigning to start her own design firm in Laguna Beach. Suzi Chauvel, OP's executive vice president of design, is the fourth top executive to leave the Tustin-based surf-wear giant in recent weeks. The company has lost its chief executive officer, the president of its Newport Blue division and its marketing director.

Fashion forecasters used to have an image problem. Like paid informants, they traded in secrets, tipping off the competition to the latest hem lengths, lapel widths, fabrics and colors. "No one in the European fashion industry would admit they bought information," says David Wolfe, creative director at New York-based D3 Doneger Design Direction.

Fashion forecasters used to have an image problem. Like paid informants, they traded in secrets, tipping off the competition to the latest hem lengths, lapel widths, fabrics and colors. "No one in the European fashion industry would admit they bought information," says David Wolfe, creative director at New York-based D3 Doneger Design Direction.

Call it brightness backlash. When neon clothes first swept the beach scene more than two years ago, even serious surfers wore them. But now that electric tints are back for yet another season, and moms, pops and kids coast-to-coast are into the trend, real surfers are calling it a wipeout. They have demoted neon to dilettante status. And they're wearing earth tones instead.

Tom Julian has seen the future and it's walking into the Traffic store on Sunset Plaza. This is what it looks like: a short-sleeved top with rainbow-colored cartoons. It's on a slender blond shopper who's idly thumbing through racks of edgy women's wear--only today she has a witness. Julian is scrutinizing this creature of the times and making mental notes. "Between the computer animation, the cartoon prints and the Information Age, see how that's reiterating information?" he asks.