Let's start with the hair.  Brendan Fraser has just cut his.  Gone is the shoulder-length look he cultivated for the summer movie spoof George of the Jungle.  "I'm having a bad hair decade," he says.  "My hair has always been styled for work.  This is my first [personal] haircut in years."  The spiky new Fraser is a soulful sophisticate, more like the romantic heroes he played in School Ties and With Honors than the comic Neanderthals of Encino Man and Airheads.  But the Olympian body that the 28-year-old actor developed for George will stay.  A dual U.S. and Canadian citizen, the 6-foot-3 inch Fraser has a loopy elegance that  allows him to play athletes as well as artists, plus a worldly charm that finds him equally at home in Armani or old jeans.

Describe your wardrobe for George.
(Mock fashion-show-commentator voice)  A leather thong accented with elastic stitching and Velcro straps on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Other days, it was a suede thong with a simple, double-knot tie on one side accented with rustic stitching.  And let us not forget the bone necklace. 

You've appeared near-nude in several movies.  How do you feel about that?
Cold.  Seriously, it's wardrobe.  I'm an actor, that's my job.

Your fashion philosophy is . . .
If you have quality, you don't need quantity.  I love the way Donna Karan takes fabrics traditionally used for women's clothes and translates them for men; they're very luxurious-feeling.  I love those single-button suits Armani is doing.  And Katherine Hamnett makes great pants.

Who are your style icons?
Chet Baker as a young man.  The jazz musicians of the fifties--man, they looked hot.

Do you ever dress to set off your baby blues?
I do.  Taupe, blue sky blue and steel gray are good.  I have a long, V-neck, cotton-knit Agnes B. pullover in steel gray.  She's another designer you can't go wrong with.  She makes a great button-fly khaki; you only need one pair.

What wardrobe items have you kept?
I have a favorite DKNY topcoat I wore in [the play] Four Dogs and a Bone.  I still have a football jacket from School Ties, the metal jewelry from Airheads, and the bone necklace from Encino Man.