THE REAL WORLD / FLORENTINE GARDENS : Sweater Weather?

They’re in their midriff-baring years.

Young women, late teens to early 20s, in tops that looked suspiciously like fancy bras, in cropped boleros paired with black stretch or flared pants, descended recently on the Hollywood dance club Florentine Gardens. Never mind that this is sweater weather.

Their male peers, dressing under the duress of a club code requiring shirts with collars and prohibiting baggy jeans and hats (gang regalia), came in comparatively conservative attire: button-down oxford-cloth shirts, V-neck sport shirts, jeans and Doc Martens or biker boots.

Some guys risked offending the doormen/fashion monitors by wearing tight tank tops under large wool vests. But such “dressy” layering also seemed to work as a ticket in. We also spied gold necklaces, beaded chokers and small hoop earrings, usually in both ears, on men.

Other looks the women liked: platform shoes in leather or suede, net or lace spandex bodysuits worn with jeans or black Lycra shorts and Doc Martens, chokers, black fishnets with three-inch heels, fluorescent knit shirts in psychedelic patterns, clingy dresses, berets of all colors, beads, large hoop earrings and red lipstick.

Sightings of thrift-store finds--including a yellow fringed suede jacket, bright and gaudy floral shirts and well-worn bell-bottoms--suggested an interest in trendy throwbacks. But at least one young hipster didn’t appreciate our use of the “T-word”: “This isn’t trendy, this is how I dress!” she declared.