Nothing, Something, Everything

High-style setters speak a language that has all the complexity of diplomatese or engineering. In fashion salons they can rattle off a demand for an "important dress-it-up-or-dress-it-down basic black or solid mix-and-match that can be accessorized." But in the past year, even the most eloquent fashion arbiters have seemed strangely inarticulate as they asked their designers to whip up ''something simple, a little nothing, really.'' The term stuck like a Zipper. Last week, as the first of the new fall wholesale collections were previewed in the Manhattan showrooms, the "little nothing'' was a big something for the new fashion year.

The little nothing is partly the stepchild of modern transportation--bulkier, more elaborate dresses severely inhibit a woman getting in or out of cramped taxis and automobiles. But technology is not the whole story. As popularized by Jackie Kennedy, the little nothing, its partisans explain, also aims for the look of unostentatious but expensive elegance that goes beyond mere chic. Most little nothings today are essentially grown-up versions of sleeveless, high-necklined junior dresses, unfitted, but figure-suggesting. 'It's almost like walking around in a slip," says a Henri Bendel buyer. "As soon as a dress gets busy, it moves out of the little-nothing class." Only the richness and rarity of the dress's fabric and its careful, ingenious cut suggest its price tag--from about $200 to more than $500 in designer originals. Designers are now fashioning little nothings in all materials from pique to brocade, and in all colors, thus setting them apart from that older fashion cliche, the little black dress. The fall collections suggest that most people have already had enough of this spring's overaccent on garish pinks. Designer Bill Blass of Maurice Rentner is leaning heavily on the neutral shades--"the wet sand and mushroom colors.''

Despite the little nothing's popularity among such habitue es of the best-dressed lists as Mrs. Winston ("Cee-Zee") Guest and Audrey Hepburn, not all designers are infatuated with it. 'The little nothing is becoming a uniform." says Arnold Scaasi. "Women today want to wear 'something' --that special dress that makes them look young, glamorous and pretty.'' Reports the New York Herald Tribune's alert women's feature editor. Eugenia Sheppard: "Husbands even say that the little nothing is just a misnomer for that little rag." The little-nothing effect is often contoured to the individual buyer, thus cannot really be mass-produced. Nonetheless. Seventh Avenue is putting out inexpensive copies of the little nothing in silk and crepe for as little as $25.

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