Show Highlights ‘Dallas’ Fashions
Designer Bill Travilla brought fashions from Hollywood to the Irvine Marriott last week, where 250 members of the Sophisticates, a fund-raising group for the Assessment and Treatment Services Center of Santa Ana, were having lunch. The room was a sea of hats.
I. Magnin kicked off the show--which raised $10,000, according to chairman Darleen Manclark--with swimsuits and a miscellany of props including a rottweiler named Bruno and drum majorettes; the women applauded every male model.
Travilla began his portion of the affair with the dress he created for Marilyn Monroe in “The Seven Year Itch,” which he surmised is “probably the most photographed dress in the world.”
Stars from the television show “Knott’s Landing” were to serve as models, but, according to Sophisticates president Mary Sabatasso, they didn’t show. So Travilla continued with clothes he created for “Dallas,” focusing on the emotional odyssey of character Sue Ellen.
Travilla’s commentary went something like this: “In this scene, Sue Ellen looked radiantly beautiful in a glittering chiffon gown with one sleeve of burnt ostrich blooms. But J.R. ignored her--he was going with Mandy. Sue Ellen slunk off into a corner, had one drink too many. . . .
‘More Than She Could Take’
“About that time, we lost poor Bobby. He was killed. Sue Ellen got herself together to go to the funeral, but it was more than she could take. . . .
“Come here darling; that dress is on backwards,” Travilla said to one model. (He wasn’t kidding.)
The last design brought down the house: a floor-length black sequin gown featuring rhinestones at the top of a thigh-high slit, black and red ostrich feathers at the neck and a matching rhinestone-and-feather one-armed wrap and mask.
ATSC, which provides counseling for juveniles, has embarked on a new program, according to board president Jim Dale. Whereas referrals came only from police departments in the past, referrals will now also be accepted from junior high and high schools.
“We want to get the kids before they get to the police departments,” Dale explained. “We want to handle a problem while it’s still a potential problem.”
The Sophisticates themselves haven’t been exactly problem-free this past year.
According to Dale, past Sophisticates president Mary Ann Miller and members Beverly Thompson Coil, Joan Stevens and Sassy Luby resigned from the group in order to start another, similar, program. “They came in, did their work for ATSC and became excited by one aspect of ATSC,” Dale said. “They wanted to expand on it, so Beverly Thompson Coil started SEARCH.”
During Miller’s tenure--she served only four months of a year’s term before resigning last April--membership increased from 30 to 120. Miller, who did not attend the luncheon, offered another version of events that led to her resignation.
Desire for Autonomy
“We felt the Sophisticates had to be autonomous,” Miller said, “separate from the executive board of ATSC, of which Jim Dale was president. He never had a post in the Sophisticates, yet he wanted to control it--he announced that he would pick the next president.”
According to Miller, the Sophie Award for Design Excellence, which was presented to Travilla after lunch, was originally intended as an incentive for upcoming Orange County designers. Last year’s award was given to the Irvine-based Lexi d’Angelo.
President Mary Sabatasso, who attended the show with her baby granddaughter--”It’s her first fashion show,” she noted--recently admitted that the group now gives the award “to whoever does the fashion show.”
It’s kind of like the Rose Parade. Only instead of the women riding on top of the floats, the floats ride on top of the women.
“All that’s missing is the marching bands in between,” said Daniel McKenna of Newport Beach, one of 800 guests at the 25th anniversary Bal Masque sponsored by Damas de Caridad. The floral headdress ball, a fund-raiser for St. Jude Hospital in Fullerton, took place Saturday night in the Grand Ballroom of the Disneyland Hotel.
Actually, the constructs of aluminum tubing, mesh, Styrofoam, glue and flower petals are smaller than floats: Rules stipulate that the diameter be no more than six feet, the weight no more than 25 pounds. On the other hand, they’re bigger than hats. Though the creations appear to be balanced on the women’s heads, it’s an artful illusion--the women, referred to as mannequins, wear a tight-fitting corset with a back brace.
“It takes hundreds of hours, just hundreds of hours,” noted florist Chris Lindsay. Two designers who work for Lindsay--Jerrol Cline and Brian Rogers--created “First Snow,” which incorporated fog effects. Don Honald’s “There’s no Business Like Show Business” used lights so that the shadows of the petals danced on the ceiling above.
Each of the models, who must be members of Damas de Cardidad, followed a carefully choreographed routine, and each moved with grace despite the unwieldy burden. (Dan Collins was the choreographer.) Joyce Weiss danced the samba for “Carnaval.” A finale brought all entries on stage at once in an orgy of color.
The winner was “Genesis,” designed by first-time participant Jim Delamore. The entry, worn by Shirley Kerstner and sponsored by Wayne and Doretta Wedin, seemed to suggest the creation of the world out of the primordial ooze. First runner-up was “Carnaval,” followed by “Somewhere in Time,” featuring butterflies and modeled by Liz Anderson, and “Close Encounter,” which depicted Halley’s comet and was worn by Cheryl Taft.
Marcy Mulville founded the Bal Masque 25 years ago.
“Of course,” noted guest Dan Baker, “Marcy founded everything in Orange County.” And for north Orange County, at least, his comment was hardly hyperbole.
According to Mulville, not too much has changed over the quarter century. “The real change is that the headdresses have become bigger and bigger and bigger,” she said. “Every year has been the best.”
Keith Clark, music director of the Pacific Symphony, commented on his role as master of ceremonies.
“Music and medicine have gone arm and arm throughout history, especially in the lives of conductors,” he said. “Did you know that conductors are ranked the best risks by life insurance companies? They live the longest.
“All but our founding father conductor, that is,” Clark continued. “Maestro (Jean Baptiste) Lully invented conducting in the 17th Century when he picked up a mace and began pounding the floor to keep the orchestra together. One time, he pounded his foot instead of the floor, developed an infection, and died of conducting. He certainly could have used St. Jude Hospital.”
Sister Jan Frances, president of St. Jude, said proceeds of $85,000 would again go toward the purchase of monitoring equipment for the Cardiac Care Unit. She called the Bal Masque a “rite to life.”
Among the spectators was Damas president Barbara Ganahl, benefit co-chairmen Jeanne Edwards and Mary Latta and mannequins chairman Norman Jones.
The Tustin chapter of the National Assistance League staged three performances of its Red Garter Revue over the weekend at Chapman College Auditorium.
This year, the revue--a musical variety show featuring league and community members, including Tustin Mayor Frank Greinke, saluted Orange County with production numbers such as “Orange Colored Sky” and “On the Banks of the Santa Ana River.”
New York-based David Wagaman directed. Show chairman was Ann Means; chapter president is Margie Lightfoot. In all, 3,000 attended and $40,000 was raised for programs for seniors, shut-ins and needy schoolchildren.
