Blue Ribbon Gets Chanel and a Check

Chanel and the Music Center’s Blue Ribbon. It makes for a classy team. Both sides admitted it at an announcement lunch hosted by Mrs. Earle Jorgensen, Blue Ribbon president Mrs. Alan Livingston and Mrs. Thomas R. Vreeland at the Jorgensen home. Chanel’s Alain Wertheimer of Paris and Kitty d’Alessio of New York joined them in reporting that on Sept. 16 Chanel will present its entire couture collection for the benefit of the Music Center Unified Fund. And to make the pot even sweeter, the French design house will throw in a sizable check too.

Chanel model Ines de la Fressange, who everyone says is the mirror image of Chanel founder Coco Chanel, was there to make the presentation more authentic. And Nancy Livingston says she has her fingers crossed, hoping Chanel’s new designer, Karl Lagerfeld, will be around for the Blue Ribbon-hosted benefit.

Marion Jorgensen sets a good table. This time there were white lilacs and tulips for decor, and fresh strawberry ice cream for dessert, plus a coconut birthday cake for Mrs. Kirk Douglas. The rest of the celebrating crowd included Mrs. William French Smith, Mrs. Gregory Peck, Mrs. Aaron Spelling, Mrs. Otis Chandler, Mrs. Armand Deutsch, Mrs. Peter O’Malley, Mrs. William Kieschnick, and Mrs. R. Stanton Avery.

Nancy Vreeland will co-chair the Blue Ribbon’s Chanel showing and outgoing president Nancy Livingston and incoming president Keith Kieschnick will be honorary chairs.

Former Blue Ribbon president (for 10 years) Helen Wolford and her attorney-husband Richard were in town from their home in Maui for one of their too-infrequent visits. When they’re around the social temperature soars.

Richard’s taken up the raising of protea (the dramatic South African blooms) and now cymbidiums, which can be seen beautifully arranged all over the Hotel Bel-Air. Wallace Symns, head of Zen, the floral arm of Rosewood Hotels (Carolyn Hunt Schoellkopf’s little enterprise that includes the Bel-Air, Dallas’ Mansion, Houston’s Remington and now, rising near the Mansion, the Crescent) was so impressed when he visited the Wolford ranch that he promised to throw a party for them when they were next in Los Angeles. Symns delivered last week with a cocktail reception in the Bel-Air’s patio. Gas heaters kept the chill out. And Norman Parkinson, the photographer, and Town & Country magazine editor Nancy Gardiner (they’re collaborating on a feature on the hotel as the Garden of Eden) warmed things up a lot when they reported he’d been photographing their model with a live boa constrictor. “The boa is costing us $300 a day to rent,” Nancy reported with great sang-froid.

More welcome guests were Zen’s two Ricks, Nazarenus and Duren (he’s returning to Texas); Harry and Marjorie Volk, Mrs. Vernon Underwood, Francie Brody, Dale and Charles Snodgrass, King and Sylvia Wu, the Bel-Air’s managing director Kerman Beriker and his wife, Tom and Esther Wachtell, Mrs. Robert Wagner (R.J.’s mother, who lives in the hotel), photographer Harry Langdon, the Music Center’s Carmine Marinelli, and the Bel-Air’s chef Joseph Venezia, who announced that he and pastry chef Kathleen Magee were married Feb. 4. The wedding reception at the Bel-Air featured calypso music. More good news--the Venezias are expecting a bambino in the fall.

The parties went on until the Wolfords departed for Washington midweek. Francie Brody gave a delightful small dinner party for them (among the guests were Charles and Palmer Ducommun and Peter Paanakker, who now has a condo in Honolulu) and Madame Sylvia Wu gave another at her restaurant with Peking duck as the main course.

Grace Lowell and Mary Ann Mobley receive special awards from H.E.L.P. for Handicapped Children at its eighth annual luncheon-fashion show May 10 at the Beverly Hilton. Rosemarie and Robert Stack are co-hosts with Carlo Celoni, who was recently named H.E.L.P.’s special events chairman. The luncheon will benefit three organizations serving handicapped youths in the greater Los Angeles area: Children’s Speech and Hearing Center, an outpatient clinic; New School for Child Development, a special education day school, and Project Six residential treatment facilities. All three are supervised by executive director Barbara Firestone.

Putting it all together are H.E.L.P.’s executive committee, Barnetta Finkel, Rita Berens, Beverly Kurtz, Marcia Finkel, Karina Rubin and president Gretta Kinstler. As for the show, it will include Maruscha’s (designed by Miriam Parkes) spring collection, Altomar jewelry by Brazilian gemologist Haroldo Burle Marx (his designs are in the collections of the Sultan of Oman, the King of Saudi Arabia, Mrs. Helmut Schmidt, Cicely Tyson, Mme. Giscard d’Estaing and Mrs. Marvin Leath, wife of the Texas congressman), and the ultimate in luxe furs by Edwards-Lowell.

The word from New York is that Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, the 35-year-old daughter of Rita Hayworth and the late Prince Ali Khan, will marry Greek shipping heir Basil Embiricos, 36, this summer. After the wedding, the couple plans to live in New York and London. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Embiricos, maintain homes in London and Athens.

Since her mother was diagnosed as having Alzheimer’s disease, Princess Yasmin has spent a great deal of time raising money for research of that illness. She is currently president of the new Alzheimer’s Disease International and vice president of the Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Assn.

Embiricos was educated at Eton and received a degree in economics from Cambridge’s Magdalene College.

The Social Scramble: Since they opened their David Webb Salon at Amen Wardy’s in Newport Beach, New Yorkers Nina and Arnold Silberstein have become true bicoastals. And driving up from Newport to dine at Le St. Germain is no problem. The other night they were having a wonderful time at one of St. G’s round tables with son Stanley and his wife Judy, and her sister, Suzy Sklar Simons, and Hal Foster and Sarah Turner, who had flown in from Houston. Occasionally St. Germain co-owner Paul Bruggemans joined them to talk about trips he’s made and will be making (sailing down the Nile looms on the 1986 horizon.) The next day Nina and Arnold flew back to New York on Regent Air where they ran into handbag maven Judith Leiber (she has a special spot at Amen Wardy too), and while they crossed the country traded all sorts of gossip.

Mrs. Rex Bartlett is giving a champagne tea Monday at her desert home for Madame Sylvia Wu and her latest book, “Cooking With Madame Wu: Yin and Yang Recipes for Health and Longevity.”

Norman N. Mamey and his family are motoring up from Corona del Mar to the Wilshire Country Club to host another (they’ve been doing this since 1978) cocktail buffet for their friends Rose Marie and Danny Thomas. Traditionally the Mamey party is the kickoff for Danny and Rose Marie’s annual gala for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. And it’s where the name of the gala’s star entertainer is revealed. This year the fund-raiser takes place on Aug. 31 at the Century Plaza; the name of the entertainer remains a secret until party time Saturday.

Antonio Alessi and Guess jeans designer Jeff Hamilton invited a lot of pals to their new restaurant, Bocca, for a taste and a sample. Actually everyone gorged on the pastas and other goodies and put their stamp of approval on the china, glass and silverware. Television producer Ernest Chambers and his wife Veronica brought two dozen votive candles, and for the first part of the evening the dining was done by candlelight. Later the lights went on and food expert Fred Roberts; the Westwood Marquis’ Jacques Camus; real estate developer John Janick and his wife; Andy Schor, chairman of Guarantee Bank and his wife, Elaine, went on with the tasting.