"I'm amazed at how many kids don't realize how they're being exploited by t-shirts that snag, wraparound patchwork dresses made of "old" material that fall apart, and especially jewelry where the elastic stretches out in no time at all," exclaimed Michael Sklar, the man behind "Childstar," a jewelry business that is justifiably thriving. To walk into his busy Hell's Kitchen workship (he's moving soon to more spacious digs) is to walk into a veritable Baskin-Robbins, or an old fashioned penny candy store. Huge hot pink orchid plastic earrings with matching pins, giant tortoise shell disc earrings, half dollar size clear lucite earrings embedded with little gold stars, outrageously colored button necklaces and bracelets and much more line the walls and fill the cartons piled high on the floor. I went completely bananas when confronted with all of this gorgeous stuff.

About a year and a half ago, I wandered into the fancy Henri Bendel's in New York thinking that if anyone would be selling earrings, they would in that store. At that time I just had this feeling about earrings, it seemed that they were ripe for a revival with the inevitable short hair styles that were to come. Bendel's had little silver pierced numbers, and gold hoops, but nothing big and tacky — which was what I wanted, naturally. I found myself scouring the local Puerto Rican stores and all the available Woolworth's to find really flashy, cheap stuff. Nothing. As a last resort, I bought art deco buckles — you know the kind, those beauties from the forties that come in matched sets. You really can't do anything with them other than sew. or clip them onto something. I clipped them onto my ears. A big mistake, as I quickly discovered when my ears began to bleed. I tried bending and twisting the little pointed clasps that hold the buckles onto whatever material you choose. Earlobes were obviously not the material originally intended.

So I gave up on earrings for about a year, and then out of curiosity went back to Bendel's again and could not believe my eyes. There — in the first floor jewelry boutique were . earrings galore; all sizes,colors, made out of what seemed to be beautiful old buttons. Women in Halston ultra-suede shirtwaists were grabbing them up as enthusiastically as girls in jeans and funky tops, and I remember thinking, as I bought about fifteen pair, that someone was going to make a fortune on this and be copied to death.

Both of those things have since happened. Michael Sklar started "Childstar" (he was the one making the beautiful old buttons into earrings) after he couldn't get rid of 250,000 buttons He bought' as a gag gift for friends who didn't Think it was at all funny. "I tried to sell the buttons," he recalled, "I even went out to flea marketshm Long Island with an old victrola and a bow tie and I tap danced. We sold exactly two bags ofbuttons. The people^there did not," he paused dramatically, "think it was amusing." Neither did he. He would wrap the buttons in Baggies ("I bought two cases of Baggies to put the buttons in, TWO CASES!!! Do you KNOW how many Baggies that is???," he shrieked, rolling his eyes in his very best Bette Midler imitation), and would try to give them away at parties. Finally, he got the incredible idea to turn them into necklaces, earrings and bracelets. The original tiny mother-of-pearl button wristlet has grown into some of the most original and outstanding jewelry of the day, and Childstar's stuff is popping up everywhere.

It was not always thus. "I was a kreplach in a sea of wonton," Michael laughs, "buyers wouldn't take them, we were really ahead of the times. That was — oh, about a year and a half ago." Now he's been receiving more orders than he can handle, so he's had to hire outside people to help make the jewelry, although all of the designs are done by Michael and the samples are made in his workshop. Michael believes fiercely in his jewelry and so do I.

What I find so interesting about it all is that, ecological justifications aside (after all it is recycling. . .), the jewelry is relatively inexpensive and while it's elegant, it is also amusing; almost like wearing toys. "It's non-exploitable jewelry," Michael feels. "After people get tired of the elastic stretching out in the bracelets that are knockoffs of mine, they'll realize that our stuff is classic, and it's well made. Everything is hand knotted, there's really a lot of careful work going into everything we turn out." The prices are reasonable as well: the most expensive piece in the collection is about $38.00, a mother-of-pearl necklace, with $2.00 the lowest for mother-of-pearl studs. Most earrings are in the four to eight dollars price range, with necklaces around fifteen, and bracelets twelve. You can take your everyday pair of jeans and ordinary halter top and wear one of Childstar's fabulous huge button chokers with bracelet to match and it looks sensational. It looks equally stylish and right with dress-up. There is a strong African feeling to some of his designs, and the color combinations are spectacular and often very unusual. And they never ever go unnoticed.

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Michael feels that even though there is still a stigma about jewelry for men (Robert Plant may wear one earring and David Bowie wears two, but Michael says you mention "Earrings For Men" to store owners or boutique buyers and they get very nervous) men are Certainly starting to come around... "Men can understand a silver bracelet at last," Michael .said* "and anyone who tries is a puss." Childstar offers great looking five dollar clear lucite coil bracelets that look extremely sexy on a man's wrist... they come in all colors too.

"We've all been deco-ed to death, and flash is going to be choked," said Sklar, "but our designs are not going to go out of style because they're simple and classic. And they make people feel good when they're wearing them." Although "fun jewelry" is almost as revolting a phrase as is "fun furs", it's really not a bad way to describe what Childstar has created. Their jewelry is fun to wear, it's well made, and it's original enough not to be seen on everyone you'll be bumping into at a concert. There are several other people making interesting plastic and metal jewelry; P & C Designs, Stephan Adrian, Good Earth (they do the big silver whistle on a chain that can come in so handy on a city street) and Red Cobra are a few others who have big beaded and lucite bracelets and necklaces. But Childstar is clearly the most exciting of the lot. You can find their goodies in New York City at Gimbel's, Bendel's, and Capezio; Magnin's in San Francisco, Hecht & Co. in Washington, D.C.; The Circle Place and Miss Amber in L.A.; A Certain Something and Aristp's in Chicago, as well as other boutiques around the country.

Speaking of jewelry, if you're into making your own, Lillian Roxon suggests buying cheap plastic clip-on earrings and covering them with small photos of your choice. You could go to a Grateful Dead concert wearing Jerry Garcia earrings (the photos are glued on and then lacquered), or self-portrait earrings might be cute. Lillian knows what she's talking about, for she's been making her own buttons for several months now. Inspired by Kath E. Miller and Linda M. Danria who began making buttons of the New York Dolls for their fan club, Lillian tears through issues of CREEM, Rock Scene and After Dark with wild-eyed glee, ripping out pix of the famous to glue onto buttons. Some of her best have be6n of Patsy Kelly, Wayne County, Bob Dylan, ,Lester Bangs and Bette Midler. Then there's her KISS series; Ahmet Ertegun kissing The Divine Miss M, Kal Rudman kissing Alice Cooper, and Nona Hendryx kissing Mick Jagger. She wears them as a set and so far has refused the many-offers to buy the three.. .

The Newport Jazz Festival was, in addition to being ten jam-packed days of fine music, a great fashion show. There was the actual fashion show co-hosted by Harper's Bazaar and the Arthur Murray Dance Studios held at Roseland, where Arthur Murray instructors glided around the stage to the music of Duke Ellington; the men in black tuxedos and the women in dresses designed by Scott Barrie, Leo Narducci, Donald Brooks, Morty Sussman for Mollie Parnis, and Giorgio di Saint Angelo. Jt was too crowded to really see everything, but it was a lovely evening.

However the real fashion impact throughout the festival was made by the performers, especially the men. Even though there was little indication that the fashion revolution of the past ten years ever happened, the clothes looked great. Ray Charles in a black trimmed, pink tuxedo jacket, and Cab Calloway in a fitted white suit. At an afternoon concert at Wollman Rink there were the tap dancers; John T. Macphee in a white striped suit with blue and white checked shirt and blue polka dot bowtie; Buster Brown in purple pants and pink jacket; Lawrence Jackson dressed in a maroon silk puffed-sleeve shirt and neck scarf; and Chuck Green wearing a blue suit and tie, red shirt. Archie Sheppwas the very essence of 1956 with his black suit, tapered trousers, a white shirt and a very thin black tie. He looked perfect.

Alice Babs, singing with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, was wearing something floor length and floral, green and white. Richard Williams of Melody Maker said that you could just tell by her neckline that she wasn't a jazz singer. Ray Charles" five Raelettes were very Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm in long gingham checked dresses with leg-o-mutton sleeves. A girl named Beth Bernett received a lot of the attention as the most outrageous merriber of the audience when she attended the Jazz Cabaret concert wearing thigh-high S & M black leather boots, hot pants, and a lace-up vest. The next night, the same lady was at the So-Lo Piano concert in an appropriately more demure, but nonetheless attention-getting outfit that consisted of a glittery gown, feather boa, arid silver turban.

Sun Ra's troupe out-glittered everything I've .seen lately; the singers and dancers all wearing lame boots and hats and trailed around a lot of chiffon capes. Sun Ra himself wore a silver and gold helmet and ended the show by walking up and down the aisles of Carnegie Hall shouting "Space!", enveloped in a dazzling orange sequinned caftan decorated with gold lame sun and stripes.

Alison Karpel has suggested that the colors or design of a t-shirt have less to do with whether one wears it than the band the t-shirt is promoting. I agree — I don't think an Allman Brothers fan would be caught dead in a Marc Bolari t-shirt, no matter how fabulous it looked... what do you think?... And with all the re-used jeans and pre-faded denims bringing in outrageous prices in boutiques from San Francisco to St. Tropez, Alexander's in New York City has just installed their "Trash With Flash" boutique. For a 'price, they'll even sew the embroidery on the old denims right in the store... Street fashion gone corporate.