On a warm morning earlier this summer, office workers in outfits by the local designer Denis Simachev, Versace suits and short skirts were pouring from the Metro into a large office building.

Yet on this day, he is tanned and dapper, wearing a Versace suit.

"I'm sure he'll give us an old Versace suit."

The face was a little older, the eyes hidden behind blue-tinted spectacles, and this Damian Cray was climbing out of a white Rolls-Royce, wearing a Versace suit and tie.

A swarthy young male in a purple and black Versace suit walked into the office and put a sheet of paper in front of Jakki.

ON the soap opera "As the World Turns," Martha Byrne plays Lily Grimaldi, a young woman who wears Versace suits and tight-fitting gowns and is married to an Italian millionaire.

For last week's visit she wore a white Versace suit, Susan Bennis/Warren Edwards pumps and an ankle bracelet.

When she walks through her old neighborhood now, she wears a slim black Versace suit made for her.

A complementing pair of sharks-Costello the formal predator in a steel-gray Versace suit, Brooks the yuppie-turned-street person in creased Dockers and battered, unshaven face.

There was a time when the idea of working in a Versace suit brought to mind boutique owners in St. Tropez.