"It's designed from the point of view of a man with raging hormones," he said of the black-leather peek-a-boo dress, the deep-pile fur bolero, the zippered overalls open to the navel and the leather hot pants with ruffles at the rear. "We are talking about swagger, about showmanship - the way she walks is poetry in motion."

It wasn't quite like that on the transparent glass runway, with digital color melting and exploding on the backdrop screens. But as the male models in their military great coats and bomber jackets stomped off in their strapped jackboots and the female models appeared in high-heeled boots, bold diamonds and sexy outfits recalling Azzedine Alaia in the 1980s, you got the message: Sean Combs is expanding his fashion empire as fast as his music and entertainment sectors.

The rise of Sean John in five years from zero to a $210 million annual wholesale business also underlines the new strength in American fashion as the New York Fashion Week kicked off the monthlong round of international collections. "Urban" wear, meaning clothes by and ostensibly for the black community, is American fashion's growth area.

Combs, 33, inked a deal last week for his first Sean John store, which will open in the autumn on Fifth Avenue at 41st Street, facing the New York Public Library. According to the executive vice president, Jeffrey Tweedy, there is also a deal to create a "silver" label line of upscale suits, to be sold at Bloomingdale's and its new downtown SoHo store.

Kalman Ruttenstein, fashion director of Bloomingdale's, says that the Sean John label is one of best menswear performers, among the top five, led by Polo Ralph Lauren and Giorgio Armani. The possibility of replicating that success with a woman's line would be a sweetener for the sour market.

At the show staged over the weekend in a marbled former bank, with an audience of music stars such as Macy Gray and Mary J. Blige and Combs's mother, Janice, made over as Donatella Versace, the excitement was not really in the clothes.

Sean Combs menswear has moved from its gaudy ghetto beginnings to become upscale sportswear marching this season to a military beat. Distressed leather bomber jackets, trench coats with hefty leather belts, bulky parkas and a few flamboyant fur-lined floor-scraping great coats were no fashion innovations. And Combs admitted in an interview that the women's line was not much more than a taster.

"It's a statement: We're coming!" he said. "I want it to be organic, to lay down the foundation. I'm just getting a track record as a high-end brand. I have to make sure it is not just a fluke. I want women to get turned on wearing my clothes. These are for women who are sexual and sensual, women who take risks - who have one drink and then another two. It's a different type of swagger - not stiff, so soulful."

And there you have Combs's intriguing mix of bravado and business savvy that may serve him as well in fashion as it has in the entertainment business and in the success of his decade-old Bad Boy record label. His invention has been to take urban sportswear, meaning the oversized hip-hop clothes born of the disenfranchised and disaffected poor black rappers, and turn them into aspirational clothing for his generation. Familiar hooded sweatshirts and down-filled parkas came in cashmere; beat-up jeans jackets were in fine leather, and silver necklets gleamed as chest furniture.

Combs does not pretend to design the clothes himself. His appointed stylist is Robert Rigutto (with a little help from existing labels like Versace and Gucci). But what is evident is Combs's conviction. As he puts it: "I am a very focused person."

In fashion, absolute certainty and clear vision are the basis of brand-building. Tweedy makes no bones about the fact that their business template is Ralph Lauren. After the Fifth Avenue store, he plans a rollout across American malls, then into Europe and a push into Asia with a partner company. Right now, the focus will be on the product. But ultimately Combs and Tweedy envision a global brand that takes in all the facets of the company from music through restaurants. They have even have a word for it: "Fashion- tainment" as a blend of all aspects of the entertainment business.

Could it happen?

Combs has a lot of things going for him: an iconic status, a heroic stance and a cult following in a fashion world where celebrity counts. He also has the authenticity of being a black man taking an ethnic look into the world arena - as opposed to Tommy Hilfiger, who has been accused of exploiting a street trend.

"I'm a black man - I respect my race and I am using my power to show it as it should be," says Combs. "But my clothes are for everybody and for all minorities - black people are not the only ones. I would love to be compared with those guys Lauren and Armani, but I am just beginning."

Combs believes that he already has clothes strong enough to create a credible image and when the women's line is developed he plans to stage a show in Paris that will be "like the circus coming to town."

"Women are so sexual and so sensual - and that is the whole point of making clothes," he says. "I hope you don't think that I am being rude and crude, but it is like making love - there is good sex and bad sex and there are good and bad clothes." There are no prizes for guessing how he rates his own performance. And the world may share his confident conviction.

(Agencies February 11, 2003)