IN one of his earliest forays into the media spotlight, Colin Lennox displayed the acute fashion sense, helpful out-spokenness, comic timing, and sheer bloody bravery which are the hallmarks of his on-screen style as presenter of a splendidly pithy new fashion-focused TV series, The F Word, which kicks off tonight on Scottish.

For it is a rare soul, indeed, who can proudly claim to have survived a remarkable initial encounter with Scottish comedy's legendary firebrand Karen Koren, no-nonsense proprietrix of Edinburgh's famous Fringe venue, the Gilded Balloon. ''It happened on my opening night of working as the Gilded Balloon's assistant manager,'' reveals Colin.

''It was during our Fringe launch party for the press, and in her usual frank and less than quiet manner, Karen was bustling about ordering all the staff to do things. I still marvel that I survived whispering these first words to her: 'You've got lipstick all over your face.'

''I think the one thing that

saved me was the fact that I was holding a tray piled high with glasses of champagne.''

Popping champagne corks haven't saluted the entire 31-year-long route of Colin's progress from his native Alloa to small-screen stardom, however. ''Alloa Academy imprisoned me for six years in the worst colour in the world - burgundy - before I started my working life as a very naive office run-around on The Jewish Echo in the Gorbals.

''I did a Communication Studies degree at Napier in Edinburgh, during the whole two-year duration of which it was my proud boast that I never knowingly wore the same outfit twice - not that anyone else noticed. I taught English for six months on a Greek island; I was the youngest-ever senior advertising sales executive at The Scotsman.

''I've worked for Karen Koren at the Gilded Balloon in a range of jobs - press officer; production assistant; tour manager - in three separate stints. I wore a chicken costume at an Asda branch in Edinburgh for a fortnight. I was a stock controller for French Connection.''

Colin's TV career has had similar twists and turns.

''At college I acted in a short film which is so hysterically bad that it's become a cult classic pirate video at showbiz dinner-parties - it will eventually come back to haunt me. I still haven't seen the film, but my fellow co-star found out that London telly-industry insiders have been chortling over it for years when she happened to get talking to Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie in a TV studio. 'You're in the acting business, too, aren't you?,' they said to her before they realised that they actually recognised her from having seen an overdubbed version of a student drama that we'd originally called The Seven Deadly Sins. I'm notable for appearing throughout the film - for no discernible reason - with my face painted green.

''I officially began in TV with three wonderful months as a researcher on the BBC's annual Festival and Fringe magazine show, Edinburgh Nights, in 1998. I assumed that, having got my foot in the door, work would automatically follow, but it's a myth.

''I wound up freelancing, presenting a series of shows from the big summertime music festivals on a cable channel, Rapture, thus travelling to Israel, Denmark, and Sweden, and interviewing everyone from Zoe Ball to Sharleen Spiteri.

''Throughout everything, I've had a huge interest in fashion. I think it started when I was 11 when my

subversive granny bought me a pair of stretchy drainpipe corduroy trousers that I was convinced made me look like a member of The Jam.''

Not that Colin Lennox is now, or has ever been, a slave to fashion. ''Our catchphrase and modus operandi for The F Word is 'So bad it's good; so wrong it's right.' We support breaking the rules. Copying any fashion is mind-numbing. Be quirky.

''We're humorous and light-hearted, and we think the idea of treating fashion with deadly seriousness is as stupid as saying that what you wear doesn't matter at all. For instance, one of the show's regular features is mocking predictions and fashion-speak.

''So in the opening show we royally decree Ricky Martin to be out and Ricky Butcher to be in, and we predict that wellingtons worn with bikinis is the next big thing. Nor do we have any swanky models showing off clothes on The F Word - we call them muddles.''

We? At this point it should be revealed that The F Word is co-presented by the woman who gave the show its edgy monicker, Colin's longtime partner in Auld Reekian clubland hedonism, Daniele Carlaw.

A genuine discovery during last year's Scottish Television daytime series Summer Discovery, Glasgow-born Daniele has a CV which encompasses DJing in a shady Soho club, The Seen; studying journalism at Napier, and film and media at Stirling; making a blood'n'guts real-life rescue series for the Discovery Channel.

Colin rightly describes Dani as ''leery, loud, clever, and funny''. Ditto a show which deliberately heads away from Scotland's two self-styled capitals of cool, Glasgow and Edinburgh, for frontline fashion despatches from everywhere from Manchester to Musselburgh; Bathgate to Dublin.

Fittingly, the final word must go to Mr Lennox. ''I could never see why people always used to say I was flamboyant,'' confesses Colin. ''Now I've watched myself on The F Word, though, I realise that I do rather flap my arms about and that my sartorial reserve is entirely missing.''

A bit of an understatement, Colin, chuck. In fact, tell it to Karen Koren and see if she doesn't clock you one.

n A component of Scottish Television's new, two-hour-long, youth-oriented, late-night magazine show, Loud TV, The F Word begins its six-week run tonight at 11.40pm.