IMAGE: Gender Lines Will Be Drawn

If you want to dress to impress this year, stick to a gender, because androgyny is a drag in 1997.

Designers, stylists and trendoids say this is the year for guys to don dressy suits and body-hugging shirts--better to show off that ab fab California body. And women will return to frills: tiered chiffons, layered ruffles, fishtail hemlines, lace and one-shoulder, asymmetric dresses.

“Guys want to look like guys again. And women are just tired of the androgynous thing,” says Janet Howard, last year’s California Designer of the Year.

Mossimo Giannulli, a designer known for his forward twist on style, agrees, calling the switch “a global thing.” And, “It will be a hip thing for younger people to dress up,” he says.

For guys, leaner-looking suits in iridescent solids, pinstripes and checks with three or four buttons, boot-leg trousers and pants with deep cuffs will be hot. Crisp shirts with wide collars, vests, ties or great-looking T-shirts round out the works, Giannulli says.

Jonathan Meizler, half of the JonValdi designing team that includes partner German Valdivia, also says “everything is getting more fitted but without a tight feeling” because of new stretch cottons, wools and knits.

One of his picks for success in ’97 is a form-fitting shirt in a Lycra-cotton mix--a conservative dress shirt with an oversized collar and French cuffs. With or without a tie, the shirt will rule, he says.

The bomb will be to add an ascot “underneath a shirt, almost like a scarf,” Meizler says of the accessory he predicts will replace the tie. “You can dress it down and still have that touch of elegance and class.”

Howard says the new “more classic, feminine look” for women includes “just about everything in a new stretch gabardine” in soon-to-be-seen shades including robin’s egg blue and “black-navy” for spring and chocolate brown for summer. (And girlfriend, here’s a bomb alert: “Go tonal,” Howard says. Translation: If you want to be so in that you can’t find your way out, coordinate your outfit in three shades of one color.)

Dead in ’97 will be exposed navels and hip-hugging trousers, Howard says. She predicts that the freshest, must-have item will be the knee-length skirt. Also sure to get attention will be a very downsized, slimmer, close-to-the body jacket that can be paired with the new fuller-legged pant worn higher on the waist--”Not on the hip! No more bending over and your underwear shows! We’re women! We’re divine!”

Valerie Sarnelle, of her namesake Beverly Hills salon, couldn’t agree more. The makeup diva says big round eyes without eyeliner, lots of blush and frosted lipstick (or layers of lip gloss) will be the face of ’97. “It’s the baby face look with a very healthy glow and no hard edges, just a very, very feminine appeal.” And what about those long, artsy, painted fingernails? “There will be less accent on the hands so nails will be short, neat and plain colors.” White is predicted to be in.

Joseph Kendall, a stylist with JosephMartin Salon in Beverly Hills, says short, chunky, thick, messy hair will be the bomb, as will his perennial favorite, the bob. “In California, especially, women have allowed their hair to overpower their faces. It’s just not very chic when the hair is too long.” And trash that “Friends” cut, he says: “That style is so cold, it’s freezing.”

As for guys, no long hair and no buzz cuts: “just short with exposed ears and heavy on the top,” Kendall says. Facial hair will still be popular, but also shorter. Think 5 o’clock shadow, stubby and narrow on the chin.

Bicoastal hair colorist Stuart Gavert, who works at Umberto in Beverly Hills and the Spot in New York, says chestnut brown hair and untidy bangs (“there’s nothing sexier than a woman looking through those bangs”) will make a big bang in ’97. So will blond highlights on brown hair. The trick is to have highlights as thick as a pencil and fewer of them. And the cut? Messy, of course. Like you just woke up to a new you in the New Year.