LOS ANGELES, Apr 5, 2003/ FW/ --- What to say about MartinMartin, probably just this: Not everything is created equal.

MartinMartin's designs are still works-in-progress, a feeling that there's greatness buried somewhere beneath the ragpile. Really.

The black single button lantern sleeve coat and Chelsea pants were professional and finely made. A warm dark brown lantern sleeve jacket and draped harlequin skirt had a trendy vintage look to them. The best of the show was easily a draped t-shirt with a ballgown skirt. It flounced and lit up a storm of applause.

Those were the good. Here comes the bad.

MartinMartin seemed to have a great fascination with old clothes. Not vintage clothes, but clothing that either needs to be cut up and made into rags or has already been cut up and made into rags. Its love of choking scarf tops astounds.

A large percentage of the clothing shown was made with a wrinkled appearance and those natty threads left after jeans are made into cut-offs. Clothing that might have worked was made ugly by the addition of an unsightly group of threads dangling from a sleeve or hemline.

The scarf tops favored by MartinMartin were stifling. They appeared as if tightened nooses around the necks of the models wearing them.

With some quality clothing mixed among the scrap bag, MartinMartin's Fall 2003 show cannot be dismissed as a complete failure. And with time, a garbage pail and renewed focus there should be a lot more than rags sometime in the future.