Snow Job

If there is anything a girl skier dislikes more than a better girl skier, it is the girl who sits in the lodge and never skis at all. Because the "snow bunny" is lazy, scheming, and a fake? No. Simply because fashion has always seemed to be in her favor. Bundled up in a puffy parka that threw her best curves to the wind, the genuine skier did not stand a chance against the indoor snow job, with her tight turtleneck and clinging stretch pants. Now, however, the sleek look is getting off the chaise longue and hitting the slopes.

Hottest news for the cold season are tailored outfits made from a new super-stretch fabric that feels more comfortable, sticks much closer to the facts. For $65, Jack Winter has whipped up a stretch suit with a thin, double-breasted jacket that would look more familiar in a Courreges workshop than on a practice slope. Sleeker still is a $40 White Stag jump suit with a neckline that plunges well below the fall line, exposing an Irish sweater, a turtleneck jersey--or whatever front a girl wants to put on.

Another variation on the theme is a stretch suit (Ernest Engel: $130) that features a convertible collar and bell-bottom pants that fit-over the boot (an inner sleeve runs inside the boot to keep out the snow). Even knickers, once available only in bulky corduroy and baggy wool, now come in stretch-fabric that hugs the hips and thighs tighter--and rather more attractively --than a girdle.

For those who cannot kick the coat habit, fashion designers are now serving up fun furs instead of practical parkas. Some are strictly fluff and nonsense, like Revillon of Saks Fifth Avenue's $5,550 chinchilla jacket with matching boots. Others are almost tough enough to tumble in, like Walt Stiel's $375 mustang, stenciled to look like giraffe. Still others have prices that are actually fun, like McGregor's $50 mock crocodile jacket.

Because tailored suits are not tailored for the cold and fun furs are not sealed off against the wind (none of those tacky elastic cuffs and waistbands for today's skier), many ski shops are pushing "layered dressing." Lord & Taylor suggests that customers start with Ban-Lon long Johns ($7), then don a nylon T shirt ($5) and a featherweight nylon Windbreaker ($7).

If tailored togs and thin skins do not prove as warm as the traditional thick parkas, the girls have one consolation--they can get that much closer to their dates riding up in the chair lift.

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