SOCAL STYLE / Fashion : Clothes Force : At His Melrose Shop, Cameron Silver Has Turned an Obsession for Vintage Fashion into an Art.

When Audrey drags out the big plastic box full of underwear, Cameron Silver’s eyes widen. Out spills the black lacy peignoirs, the slippery skirt slips, the ivory half-slips. “Let me see that one, and that one,” he says, spying a trio of rosy flowers on one, a scalloped trim on another. He moves toward the window, holding the pieces to the light, looking for flaws.

He had already whisked through three racks of clothing Audrey set out for him, dismissing all but a few items with a flick of the wrist and the telltale clatter-squeak of hanger sliding over metal bar. He does set aside a Capiati skirt set, a simple blue blouse, a skirt in a sedate yet “truly groovy” print of black stripes and rainbow rectangles. “What about this?” Audrey asks, drawing his attention to a black suit.

“I don’t have a good Adolfo business,” he replies. “I don’t have good suit business. Actually, no one does. Everyone’s into sporty chic.”

He eventually puts back the groovy skirt when closer study reveals a tiny moth hole, and picks up a slip skirt. “This is nice,” and that’s when Audrey disappears, returning, with her big plastic box.

In the end, Silver buys only a half dozen pieces, including three slips. “I told you I was very picky,” he says. “You have some great things, just not for us.”

“Us” is Decades, Silver’s enterprise on Melrose Avenue and the store du jour for fashion-conscious photo-op props, including Cameron Diaz, Courteney Cox, Tea Leoni, Brad Pitt and Kirstie Alley. Well into its second year, Decades is ground zero for the latest fashion resurrection--styles from the ‘60s and ‘70s. Gucci, Pucci, Paco Rabin, Halston, Courreges, Pierre Cardin, Lily Pulitzer, all are lovingly displayed in a gallery-like space with a high floor-space-to-merchandise ratio and even higher prices. Five hundred dollars for a Pucci blouse, $1,200 for a Geoffrey Beene dress, $7,200 for a crocodile Hermes bag-- rocketing Silver into the realm of art dealership.

“I’ve always loved vintage clothes,” he says, “but I want modern clothing. Do we really need L.A. gals running around in a Victorian gown?”

Quietly arrayed in a Liberty print shirt and beige Costume National hip-hugger suit, the 29-year-old reels off his place-perfect back story. With an L.A. pedigree that includes Beverly Hills High, an after-school job at Fred Segal Melrose and a UCLA degree in theater, he naturally became a German cabaret singer. For four years. “I got the record deal and great reviews,” he says, “but then, you know, nothing really happened. I wasn’t getting famous. All I knew were musicians and a lot of cabaret divas. It was a bit niche.”

He began buying vintage clothes, modern vintage clothes, and shipping them home. With “a little savings,” he opened Decades in 1997. His timing was exquisite. Hippie couture and mod retro have cluttered the runways for three years, and vintage has never been hotter, especially in Los Angeles, where glamour gals like Nicole Kidman and Diaz show up at premieres looking like they raided Mary Quant’s attic. “They give the style credibility,” says Silver. “Vintage has really grown out of Los Angeles--we have the best stores. We have bigger closets than in New York, so people bought more clothes, and the vintage is sexier because of Hollywood.”

But nothing is more ephemeral than fashion, unless it be retro fashion, so Silver is already contemplating the future.

“I think we’re moving toward a sort of primitive luxury--primitive sewing techniques in luxe fabrics, like Western pants and all this whipstitch we’re seeing. And the return of fur. You can’t get more primitive, or more luxurious, than fur.

“We’re having a fur moment,” he says, “but then everyone will wake up and hate themselves for it. But it is odd that as we approach the 21st century, we’re so much more Flintstones than Jetsons.

“I hope,” he adds, “someone will bring back the safari jacket.”

But right now, Silver seeks a truly modern look, and the only way of achieving it, he says, is to mix the old and the new. “Helmut Lang, Gucci, Costume National all have pieces that, if you buy them correctly, don’t get in the way,” he says. “You don’t want to over-power the vintage, because that’s the conversation piece. But there’s a fine line between doing it right and looking like a Halloween costume.”

The point, he says emphatically, is to look modern, not retro.

Silver has little training (“the costume work I did in college helps”), and so relies on his eye and his instinct, both of which have proven stalwart, if not infallible.

“I completely regret all the Steven Sprouse I gave away,” he sighs, “and I would have kept the Gaultier. Not to wear, but it would be collectible.”

So what are the collectibles of the future?

“It’s ironic,” he says. “So much of it now is derivative of the ‘60s and ‘70s, but reworked ideas will be collectible too. Iconic signature items--those Prada backpacks, Donna Karan bodysuits, Gucci beaded jeans, Western pants, anything by Calvin Klein. Real minimalist fashion because it personifies the time. Margiello will be very collectible because it brought in deconstructionism. Anything Hermes. Vintage Kelley bags today go for more than the original purchase price.”

The list that unspools so easily has been years in the making--thousands of hours of sifting through flea markets, browsing through secondhand stores, sorting through closets, digging through boxes of lingerie.

“I go to people’s houses and it’s often uncomfortable because I hate rejecting their things, but I have to be picky. I get to the Rose Bowl flea market at 5:30 in the morning,” he says. “It’s horrible. I’m tired all day, I’m bitter all day. That’s why there is a premium at Decades. If I’m going to get up and go instead of you, then you are going to pay.”

To those who wince, he warns that it’s only going to get worse.

“People,” says the young man who knows, “are buying vintage like it’s art.’

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What Cammeron Silver Likes:

* People-watching at the St. Louis airport.

* The ceviche and the scene at El Siete Mares in Silver Lake.

* Nike Air Max and Abercrombie & Fitch T-shirts.

* Anything by designer Jacques Adnet.

* Minneapolis, “because everyone’s so nice.”

* The film “Eyes of Laura Mars” for the fashion.

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Styled by Cameron Silver, Dana Allyson Greenberg and Raven Kaufman; hair: Alex Dizon/Artists; makeup: Debra Ferullo/Artists