It's not every day that Roanokers get the chance to see designs by the likes of Bob Mackie, Oscar de la Renta, and Dolce and Gabbana along with scores of other frocks from the best-known fashion houses in the United States, France, England, Italy, Japan and Canada all under one roof.

Heck, unless Cato's starts selling haute couture, a pair of Liz Claiborne corduroy pants will be the closest most of us get to high fashion.

On Thursday, though, the Ebony Fashion Fair returns, and Star City fashion plates will get their chance to see the types of fancy duds that Carrie and Company were always oohing and aahing over on TV's "Sex and the City."

For 47 years, the Ebony Fashion Fair, the world's largest traveling fashion show, has traveled to places like New York City, Philadelphia and D.C., but also Canton,Ohio; Schaumburg, Ill.; and Elizabeth City, N.C. - in other words, places like Roanoke that aren't exactly the center of the couture universe.

The Fashion Fair has made a stop in Roanoke every other year since the 1970s. For many in the valley's black community, it's considered one of the year's premiere social events. Typically, though, the show draws only a smattering of white fashionistas, according to the Roanoke co-coordinator, Rose Moore. She'd like to see that change this year.

Moore, 71, said she's heard white women say they don't come to the show because they don't think they'd be welcome - a misconception that Moore wants to clear up right here and now. While Ebony magazine is a black publication, she said, the show is open to anyone with an interest in fashion and fun.

"We welcome everybody, all races, to see our show," Moore said firmly.

Anyone attending the Ebony Fashion Fair for the first time, though, does need to know one thing: While some audience members will be casually dressed, more will turn out in outfits that could compete with the designs on the stage. Moore described the show as an event "to see and to be seen at."

"You look at some of the young women in the crowd and think they're the models," she said.

More than 300,000 patrons attend the Ebony Fashion Fair nationwide each year. Since its inception, the Fashion Fair has been performed more than 4,000 times in the United States, the Caribbean, London and Jamaica.

Fashion Fair 2004 stars 12 models (two men and 10 women, including a plus-size) who will sashay onto stage showcasing outfits that fit with this year's theme: "Living It Up."

"In spite of strife around the globe, the fashion world is projecting an upbeat attitude," the show's Web site explains. "Renowned designers around the world have declared liveliness and vibrancy to be the feel and ambience for the 2004-2005 fashion season."

That means bold colors and designs that certainly aren't for wallflowers. A Bill Blass number adds an ostrich feather hemline to a slip dress and pairs it with a dramatic black-and-white feather coat. Plain jeans get spruced up with suede appliques and a leaf-petal hemline in a number by Italian designer Alberto Makali. A leather minidress by Fusha is faux laced at a decollete neckline with leather strips and beaded leather fringe encircling the hips.

Expect to see equally dramatic accessories. Think gemstone brooches, large necklaces, and lively belts and hats.

The typical Roanoker, even those on the cutting edge of fashion, probably won't head into the boardroom wearing a dress with an ostrich feather hemline, but the show might give her ideas for new color combinations. And she can still embrace the show's spirit of putting the fun in fashion by, say, adding a daring silk flower to a gray pantsuit or a chunky necklace to that white oxford shirt.

Audience members at Thursday's show can also expect to see a few particularly daring outfits. Way back in 1975, for instance, a model wore a thong bikini onstage. Just as on the runways in Milan, a model in the Ebony Fashion Fair may come out in a breast-revealing camisole or perhaps a skirt that leaves little to the imagination. A tubular-cut Tilmann Grawe dress on the Fashion Fair's Web site that seems to have been inspired by a porcupine, for instance, shows a whole lot of cleavage and even more of the model's thighs.

At every Ebony Fashion Fair, part of the ticket sales go to a nonprofit group. To date, the show has raised more than $50 million for different scholarship groups. In Roanoke, the Cultural Social Service Organization at St. Paul United Methodist Church sponsors the show. The group will use the money for the Gertrude Spencer Claytor Scholarship and the church building fund.

Audience members get more than fashion for their $25 ticket. Everyone receives a one-year subscription to Ebony or a six-month subscription to Jet and is registered for door prizes that include two tickets on American Airlines.

As she's grown older, Moore finds she's less interested in wearing the latest fashion trend than she used to be. But she's still eager for the Fashion Fair to arrive once again.

"It's a good show done for wonderful reasons," Moore said.