Fashion Update

Atlantic crossing - Curious. At the British Designer of the Year Awards, which took place last October, at London's Natural History Museum, an American designer was drafted in to be the guest of honour and to present the top awards. In the US, whe re theawards for 1994 will be presented on 30 January at the Lincoln Center, in New York, they've drafted in a British princess.

Donna Karan got to present the British Designer of the Year award to John Galliano. At the American fashion industry's"Oscars" at the end of this month, the Princess of Wales will do the honours. She will present a special award to Elizabeth Tilberis, the editor of Harper's Bazaar magazine, who was formerly the editor of British Vogue.

Other winners include Richard Tyler, who gets the American Designer of the Year award, despite the fact that he is Australian and ended 1994 with the termination of his contract with the Seventh Avenue clothing giant, Anne Klein. Chanteuse Mariah Carey will present the award for new designers to Cynthia Rowley, Victor Alfaro and Robert Massimo Freda.

Also up for honours are Carrie Donovan, now retired after 20 years from the post of fashion editor of the New York Times Magazine, Bernadine Morris, retiring after 31 years as fashion editor of the New York Times and Nonie Moore, retiring after three decades in fashion, the last decade as fahion director of GQ. There will be tributes to the Wonderbra (you can't go anywhere in NYC these days without cleavage being on display) and to the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the icon of American style.