THE CROWD:

It’s 10:30 a.m. Thursday morning. Neiman Marcus Fashion Island is holding a press preview of spring 2008. The live models are no doubt primping. I pull up to the store and find the first parking space open in the small circle right next to the store. I take it. It’s an omen. I’m in for quite a day.

My associate and I enter Neiman’s. It’s already busy with the early shoppers. Tall men with poofy hair in Armani suits are spraying perfume atomizers on the women at their counters. The morning Newport sky is gray — but it’s very sunny in the store.

Spring 2008 has arrived at America’s fashion retailer. This year, it’s not just called Neiman’s — but rather Neiman’s 101. They are celebrating their 101st anniversary season marking a century of high fashion that began with the joining of forces of a brother, sister and brother-in-law back in Texas before the dawn of the age of technology.

We travel up the escalator arriving at a private room in the rear of the store. A waiter stands at attention, dressed in obligatory black formal attire with a pink tie. He is at the ready with a 10:45 a.m. Bellini, served in a tall flute and garnished with a squiggle of lime — not just a cut — but a squiggle, a slinky curling zest of green citrus carefully attached to the rim of the tall flute bubbling with bubbly and mixed with a multicolored fruit beverage.

We are the first to arrive at the press preview. The room is arranged in horizontal fashion. Bleached wood Chivari chairs with seats upholstered in cheetah print — not leopard — but cheetah — surround a runway carpet of mixed sections of orange, coral, cream and more cheetah. It’s a carpet mosaic to be sure. Press folders in bright orange rest on the seats and a small gift bag is placed on the right side of each chair.

Soon, breakfast is served. The young man in black and pink introduces himself and shares that he is a grad of UCI and works multiple jobs in pursuit of his career goals. He loves his job at Neiman’s and brings a small modern piece of china in an unusual shape sporting an assortment of bite-size morning nibbles. I ask my associate if she will trade. I’ll give up my quail egg on toast for anything she wishes to swap.

We’re nibbling as Michaele Hall, Neiman’s 101 fashion tsarina and PR queen enters. Hall loves fashion more than our waiter loves his job. She lives fashion.

Confessing that she has rummaged through racks of her personal wardrobe collection at home to assemble the perfect spring 2008 outfit for the fashion show, Hall shows off her fitted coral-colored sweater, paisley print skirt in shades of coral, orange, celery and cream, and her coral patent high heel pumps trimmed in gold metal at the heel and sole.

“I just bought these shoes. Could you die?” she blushes. I probably could die over the sticker shock, but I don’t say a word.

She looks smashing. Sexy and chic, and she knows it. Hall walks with the energy of a star and the confidence of a power broker, and shares that she has converted her residential garage into a giant additional walk in (or drive-in) closet.

“I keep everything,” she adds. “This sweater I found with the tags still on it. I think I bought it several years ago.”

The crowd arrives, seemingly all at once as if on cue. Fashionable young women and men from the burgeoning local press corps.

Hall begins, “Put your black away. Spring 2008 is all about color.” She goes on to tell the group — all sipping their squiggle clad Bellinis — that the black dress and the black pants outfits must go back in the closet because black is definitely out — and color is in.

Move over black; big, bright, bold color is de rigueur for the season. And, it’s not necessarily coordinated.

“Wear a pink dress with green shoes and a big lavender handbag,” says Hall with glee. A video projects the trends behind her narrated and created by Neiman’s style meister supreme Ken Downing, vice president and fashion director world-wide. “Bold and bright, turquoise to Caribbean, hot pink to watermelon, Kelley green to citron, yellow in every shade — orange — red ” narrates Downing.

Then the live models hit the mosaic runway carpet. The message is feminine and whimsical. The design world is having fun this year. The seriousness of world affairs is forgotten in favor of vibrant fun.

Hall points out the earrings on the models. “I call them Palm Beach earrings. Big, flashy, and bejeweled.” They are all costume. In Palm Beach, they’d be real. Hall points out the bracelets. Wide bands of beads and crystals in glorious color all shimmering as the gals parade. “They are flying off the shelves,” she shares. “Real Fashion Statements — and reasonable, $250. Wear them day and night!”

Roberto Cavalli, Stella McCartney, Easton Pearson and Yves Saint Laurent are among the celebrated designers featured. Ken Downing’s video narration and Hall’s live descriptions proclaim, “The season is global. It’s about artistry, femininity and color!”

We left Neiman’s 101 infused with artistry, color, and my associate even had an extra dose of femininity. There was the car, in space No. 1. I returned to the office to write this column, removed my gray slacks and blue Oxford shirt and put on an orange Polo shirt and green golf pants. It’s spring 2008 on the Riviera!

THE CROWD runs Thursdays and Saturdays.