We've been seeing red lately.

Oprah gave her television audience red Motorola cellphones last week, and Swarovski designated jeweled evening bags as "The Red Carpet Collection."

Ahhh, the red carpet. "Get red carpet beautiful with L'Oreal."

Have you ever seen or heard two words used more often than these during the weeks of hype for awards ceremonies: Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, Grammys and, of course, the Oscars, where it all began?

The biggie, the 79th Academy Awards, has wrapped up for another year.

Fred Hayman, who was the fashion coordinator for the Oscars for 14 years, starting in 1989, seemed like the man to ask about this whole "red carpet" significance.

"I'm not sure when it began but there has been a red carpet as long as I can remember," said Mr. Hayman, who still lives in Beverly Hills, where he opened his famous store, Giorgio, on Rodeo Drive in 1961.

As coordinator he always aimed to head off "grotesque" but admits there were always surprises in the gowns and other outfits that celebrities would choose.

"We tried to help. They didn't always listen."

The idea was to add glamour (he doesn't like the word glitz) and excitement to Oscar night and to get major designers to contribute.

Would he change anything about the event we see now?

"If I could change anything about the shows now, I would suggest more focus on Hollywood and the movies."

He thinks celebrities no longer dress as a personal expression of themselves. And he knows celebrities pretty well, having attracted such stars as Elizabeth Taylor and Ava Gardner, Janet Leigh and Natalie Wood to his women's wear boutique.

That's quite an admission from the man who might have single-handedly turned so much attention to the question, "Who are you wearing?" rather than "What is your next film?"

Has the fashion fuss and unabashed "selling" of the names on labels while posing on that red carpet gotten out of control?

"It's simply something that has evolved, this idea of having fashion houses solicit stars to wear their fashions. A major star wearing a designer's dress does a lot. Armani certainly enjoyed success with celebrities wearing his clothes early on.

"We just wanted it to be like the old days, which were -- either real or dreamed -- much more glamorous than what we were seeing at the time."

He's talking about stars like Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Gary Cooper and Jean Harlow, whose George Hurrell portraits hang in his memorabilia room at his Malibu weekend house.

His famous boutique also was known for the Giorgio fragrance. It turned heads, not to mention noses. Avon bought the Giorgio empire for $165 million in 1987.

When he and his wife, Gayle, divorced, she opened her own store and had success with another fragrance. It was simply called Red.

Mr. Hayman bought back the original store site and renamed it Fred Hayman Beverly Hills, eventually creating, among others, a fragrance "273," which was the Rodeo Drive boutique's address. He kept the boutique until 1998.

Another red-letter note: Known for sending notes to loyal customers, Mr. Hayman wrote them with a red felt-tip pen.

Now retired, he watches but no longer attends the Oscars.

These days he'd rather spend time with his wife, Betty, eight grandchildren, a dachshund, a German Shepherd and two Burmese cats -- nowhere near a red carpet.

And his favorite color isn't red. It happens to be yellow.