FASHION : I Wear My MTV : Pop culture: MTV fans have been clamoring for the cable channel’s scarce T-shirts. Now the network’s coveted style will be showing up on a variety of gear.

Calvin Klein . . . Gianni Versace . . . Ralph Lauren . . . MTV??? Believe it or don’t, MTV is getting into the fashion business.

Ever since the 24-hour, rock-video cable channel went on the air in 1981, its limited-edition T-shirts--wearable versions of the brilliantly crazed MTV graphics--have been collectors’ items.

Only trouble was, you had to know somebody at MTV to get one. Or win one of their nutty contests, in which you’d get a great T-shirt but also had to go on a date with Prince or let the network broadcast live from your basement.

Ever since MTV began, “major department store chains really wanted to start selling MTV T-shirts,” says Judy McGrath, the network’s senior vice president and creative director.

But execs said no to all proposed deals, holding out until they could put together a package as impressive as their Clio Award-winning advertising.

In recent years, they’ve tossed the public just a few crumbs: T-shirts and sweat shirts issued in conjunction with such hit shows as “YO! MTV Raps” and “Remote Control” (MTV’s flipped-out satire of game shows). Limited editions of these goods are available in department stores and record outlets.

But the demand has been far from satisfied. For instance, at this September’s Music Video Awards show at the Universal Amphitheatre, T-shirts commemorating the event were snapped up so fast they were sold out before the program started.

And afterwards, rip-off artists hawking phony awards shirts were roaming the Universal lot and had to be shooed off by MTV staffers. Other illegal vendors have repeatedly advertised fake MTV apparel in the classified section of Rolling Stone magazine.

Now, however, the network has decided to go after the fashion market in a big way. Unlike other major networks that have simply put their logos on everything from windbreakers to key chains, MTV, as usual, is entering the licensing arena with a twist.

They won’t be placing their celebrated logo (featuring an oversize, blocky M filled with anything from live gold fish to modern art) on athletic apparel and accessories, at least not exclusively. The company plans a series of seasonal fashion lines: all manner of casual apparel, tennis shoes and accessories such as sunglasses, caps, bags, watches, beach chairs and more.

Already, MTV has signed multiyear contracts with four “core” licensees, three of which are in Southern California:

Vision Street Wear--a Santa Ana, cutting-edge sportswear line known for having its bold, graphically oriented clothing worn by major rock artists from the Rolling Stones to the Red Hot Chili Peppers

Vans--the Orange-based sneaker manufacturer beloved by surfers, skateboarders and bikers and known for pioneering outrageously patterned athletic shoes

Edgewear--a Culver City-based concern that sells accessories such as caps and bags that are worn by numerous world-class athletes.

MTV also has agreed to enter into a contract with Riviera, the New York-based sunglasses firm to produce its unique line of sunglasses.

There’s not much of this fashion wear on the market as yet. Most will not be in stores until next summer.

But what’s already out appears promising. For instance, a series of elegantly funky, design-’em-anyway-you-want MTV sneakers has been introduced at Vans shoe stores in the last few weeks.

Customers for the $40 sneakers can buy a pair pre-assembled--or get a little crazy. They can pick and choose among assorted fabrics and have the shoes’ components assembled in any configuration, then delivered four weeks later.

“At the end of the first week and a half we had the MTV shoes in stock, shoe sales were up 10% in our stores and the only advertising we did was just a few radio spots,” says Steve Van Doren, Vans director of promotions and marketing.

At the moment, the shoes are sold only in the 53 Vans stores located throughout Southern California, but will be in Nordstrom in December and other department stores and specialty stores later on.

Style-wise, this line is a bit more conservative than the totally wild Vans shoes, which are a favorite among professional BMX bikers and have been worn on stage by Weird Al Yankovic and on film by Sean Penn, who hit himself on the head with a pair of “checkerboard slip-ons” in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.”

“We’re going to change four to six times a year with fabrics, colors, looks. We’re doing things like printing on the inside of the linings,” Van Doren adds, noting that MTV could have signed with a larger company such as Nike or Reebok but wouldn’t have been able to change styles as quickly if it had.

One of the remarkable features of the sneakers is that you can’t read the label, unless you really look closely. “We are absolutely not going to just slap the logo on a bunch of stuff,” explains Harriet Seitler, MTV’s vice president of marketing and promotion. “We really want to embody in our products the same level of creativity and innovation that we have on the air.”

Indeed, many believe the network has ushered in a whole new era of graphic sensibility. Who else can say they’ve been able to get top artists such as Keith Haring, Robert Longo and Jonathan Borofsky to create commercial images for them?

With the new fashion lines, Seitler continues, “We’re creating a strategy designed to enhance MTV. We want to let our audience touch and feel MTV through products that reflect their life styles and to build a revenue stream as we do it. We’re creating products and picking licensing partners who have a respect for that state of mind.”

In fact, licensee Vision Street Wear is so in sync with the MTV generation that its casual wear already appears in numerous videos, including those of The Cult, The Cure and INXS.

Brad Dorfman, the founder of Vision, says the line will include everything from high-end leather jackets to funky, fun T-shirts and sweats.

Dorfman also expects that certain things will be targeted for specific MTV audiences: the heavy metal, “Headbangers Ball” audience will get slimmer fitting jeans. There will be a Yo Raps line, for rap enthusiasts, with more colorful coordinates, looser-fitting clothes, comfortable, funky, baggy shorts and baggy pants.

From Edgewear, which has made accessories for a number of active-wear companies from Speedo to Gotcha, MTV is expecting unusual treatments of items such as fitness bags, visors and caps. The MTV logo may be only on the inside flap of a duffel bag, for example.

Craig Stamman, a partner in License Works Inc., Edgewear’s parent firm, suspects the reason why MTV wound up doing business with three Southern California firms is the fresh, visual statement continually coming from the Southern California active-wear industry.

“Graphically, I think the Southern California active-wear industry is almost like the rock ‘n’ roll industry of the ‘60s and ‘70s. A lot of the same people who would have been doing album covers in the ‘60s or ‘70s have been doing graphics for the active-wear industry in the ‘80s.”

In any case, a marriage has been made between MTV and leading-edge manufacturers in Southern California.

“I think the most important thing is, these companies have the attitude we’re looking for,” says Zeitler. “Their products embody the not-normalness of MTV.”