Desperately Seeking Chanel

By WOODY HOCHSWENDER Published: May 24, 1988 In her red-silk Chanel suit, with its brass buttons and white-trimmed pockets, Debra Sharpe has snap. But take a closer look. The hardware is the give-away. There is no trademark double-C on the buttons. Ms. Sharpe, who owns the Sharpe Gallery on Wooster Street in SoHo, is a bit of a fashionable fraud. She has her Chanel suits copied by a dressmaker from magazine tear sheets. ''I've never had anyone ask me if it's real or fake,'' she said. ''I wear both, and I think my fakes are better.'' Susan Blond wears pure unadulterated Monday-through-Friday Chanel. ''I only feel completely comfortable when I'm in Chanel,'' said Ms. Blond, whose company handles the publicity for many recording stars. ''You want to impress everyone you meet.'' she added. ''So you always want to wear Chanel. I even feel better on the phone.'' Ms. Blond's associate, Suzanne MacNary, can't afford full-blown Chanel dressing but does like the look. So she has sewn brass buttons onto a Dianne B. blue jacket and marshaled her accessories to approximate the real thing. 'Looking at the Tag' ''I got my first real Chanel blouse last week,'' said Ms. MacNary, ''and I can't stop looking at the tag.'' In varying degrees, many women seeking a formula to blend in with the symphony of gray in the business world, without being overwhelmed by it, turn to the Chanel version of power dressing. The updated suits - often collarless cardigan-style with brass buttons - are soft and chic, feminine but strong. With a rope of pearls, gold chains and earrings, the required quilted leather handbag and the optional beige sling-back pumps with black patent toes, it's a pulled-together look - a power look. At an average of $2,000 for a ready-to-wear suit, it's also an expensive look. But many working women don't bat an eyelash about spending thousands to achieve it. Fashionable without being forward, the Chanel suit has achieved a new currency and appropriateness in the last several years. Like the chalk-striped suit for men, the look is rich, refined and, above all, dressed. ''You can be in fashion without screaming 'fashion,' '' said Anna Wintour, editor in chief of HG magazine, who bought a navy-and-white tweed Chanel ready-to-wear suit in Paris this year. ''I think a lot of businesswomen feel more comfortable when they don't stand out too much. It's very genuine, very applicable and very much of today.''