The royal wedding gown may be something...
The royal wedding gown may be something of a state secret, but as for Sarah Ferguson’s nuptial tresses, the secret is partly out. “The only thing I can tell you is her hair will be up in a chignon. It definitely will be up and she’ll be wearing a formal headdress,” says Beverly Hills hair stylist Michaeljohn, whose London salon will tend the redhead’s locks for her June 23 wedding to Prince Andrew. Michaeljohn, who says his London studio does “most of the royals,” tells Listen that “Fergie’s” healthy, shoulder-length hair is trimmed regularly and “will do what we want it to do.” But he notes this “basic, down-to-earth girl” doesn’t go for anything fussy. Her preference for riding: a ponytail.
If you had a choice, would you throw a masked ball? A barbecue? A candlelight dinner? Would you invite Nancy Reagan? Mikhail Baryshnikov? Elizabeth Taylor? Dolly Parton? And what fragrance would you wear? Careful here, cautions Guerlain’s director of special events, Godfrey Rayner, or you might end up wearing a perfume that fights with your hubby’s cologne. To provide scent savoir-faire, and a few giggles at the same time, Rayner devised the party questions, fed them into a computer named Hector and took to the road stopping in Phoenix, San Francisco and at Robinson’s in Beverly Hills. Locally, he found customers were eager to invite Baryshnikov and the First Lady to dinner. Hector wasn’t the only one asking questions as the Guerlain team promoted fragrances, such as Shalimar and Jardins de Bagatelle for women, Vetiver and Habit Rouge for men. Customers were eager to know how long a fragrance will keep its potency. The answer, according to Rayner: “Unopened and kept away from direct sunlight, it will last a number of years. If you want to prolong its life, put it on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator.” Next question, please. Which is stronger-- eau de toilette or eau de Cologne? The answer, which Rayner says some women find hard to believe, is eau de toilette. “I think they’re afraid of the word toilet.”
From what we’ve seen in the mail this week, it’s time for an update on footwear terminology. Sneakers, of course, are the cotton canvas shoe for summer. But if they look like sneakers and they’re made of snake, they might answer to the name “Snakers.” The newsy shoes are actually a crossbreed--part aerobic style, part sneaker. Sometimes they’re made of water snake, sometimes of a finer-grained whip snake, in colors such as silver, turquoise, lilac, green and gold. Such serpentine chic has its price (about $80 a pair or $120 for a high-top version.) Snakers are not on view at the zoo, but at Saks, Nordstrom and Bullock’s. (High tops to come in June.)
Some more unusual information crossed our desk this week, thanks to Gloria Zucker, who owns Waxing by Gloria, a body-waxing salon in Encino. She tells Listen that her customer list this spring includes the usual collection of competition swimmers and divers (both men and women), along with a whole new clientele of cyclists. Zucker says most of these newly added clients are male competition cyclists who want their arms and legs waxed. But they don’t get the waxing in order to improve their race times, like swimmers do, she adds. The cyclists do it, she says, “because they go so fast on their bikes that the hair on their legs knots up and it hurts.” Of all the challenges inherent in the sport, this is one we hadn’t considered.
McFashion Report: Valentino, the hotshot Italian designer, claims a newly opened Rome branch of McDonald’s is filling his home with noise and the “unbearable smell of fried food.” According to a Reuter’s report from the pasta paradise, Valentino’s lawyers are asking magistrates to close the restaurant on the grounds of nuisance, and the court has heard the designer’s workers testify that they must keep the windows closed all day to exclude the odorous distractions. The court is having a technical expert carry out a monthlong survey on the restaurant, which opened in March. We can’t wait to smell Valentino’s next collection.
Mary Frann avoided a shopping trek to Newport Beach earlier this week--when Newport Beach came to her. The Amen Wardy Boutique dispatched its new “clothesmobile”--a 34-foot, garment-toting RV--to the actress’ Beverly Hills home on Monday. Listen hears from Amen Wardy’s Dino Gigante that the Size-8 Frann, co-star of TV’s “Newhart,” chose a tight, beaded, multicolored Bob Mackie gown and some David Webb jewelry, which she will wear as host of the “The 1986 Miss USA Pageant,” airing Tuesday on CBS.
Since George Hamilton finished filming for “Dynasty,” we hear, he’s been growing his hair. It’s to get him into the monster mode. Hamilton’s regular hair stylist, Janis Buller of the Vidal Sassoon Salon, explains that the actor’s longer locks will be part of the look when he starts filming a sequel to “Love at First Bite,” his earlier Dracula flick.
Once a businesswoman, always a businesswoman. That is, if she’s Gale Hayman, part owner of Giorgio Inc. and ex-wife of the boutique’s founder Fred Hayman, who says she “went totally inactive at the Beverly Hills store” in 1985 only to announce recently that she is setting up her own cosmetics company. What she is taking with her from the Rodeo Drive boutique, Hayman says, is the experience of “15 years in the fitting rooms,” where she discovered that there are more difficult things than choosing a dress. “Women were always complaining that they couldn’t find the cosmetics they wanted, and they didn’t know what makeup colors to wear,” she recalls. Hayman, a driving force behind the first--now famous--Giorgio fragrance, says she alone designed everything about her own cosmetics line, from the patented concept to the color ranges to the packaging. She says her venture is “totally independent of the Giorgio boutique,” and she has “no plans at this time to sell the products through the store.” She also tells Listen that her cosmetics collection intends to “capture Hollywood glamour instantly” at a price roughly equivalent to that of Chanel cosmetics. She will launch her line in 1987. Asked why she and her business partner Fred Hayman aren’t in this new venture together, she says: “My passion is cosmetics, fragrance and skin care. Fred has always been more comfortable with retail.”
