We thought we spotted Barbara Walters at...
We thought we spotted Barbara Walters at Leather Waves, a shop in Malibu Country Mart. So we phoned the store’s designer-proprietor, Jackie Robbins, to check it out. Yes, she told us, Walters does come by now and then. Her most recent purchase, Robbins says, “was a sporty, oversize, baseball-style jacket made of soft, white patchwork leather. She got it off the rack and it looked wonderful on her. I made a pair of white-leather, straight-leg pants, cut like jeans, for her to wear with the jacket.” Walters’ husband, Lorimar Telepictures chief Merv Adelson, lives nearby, Robbins says.
If visions of Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” still dance in your head, you might want to check out “Faux Couture Night” at Sak Fifth Avenue, Beverly Hills. Hepburn’s form-fitting sheaths and suits for the movie are a couture look from the late ‘50s. The folks at Saks are going to show us how to fauxify for a fraction of the price, using clothes from the store’s contemporary clothes department, says Patty Fox of the store. More than a fashion show, faux night will feature a show of classic cars and popular dances from the ‘50s and ‘60s, a comedy nightclub act and a buffet. All this and fashion too starts at 7 p.m. Sept. 5. Tickets, $12, can be ordered by calling the store.
Gentleman cowpoke Dennis Weaver wanted an image transplant. “It was time people stopped asking me ‘Where’s the horse?’ ” he says. So he went shopping at Rick Pallack in Sherman Oaks and bought himself a double-breasted gray suit and a single-breasted black tuxedo with a paisley bow tie. Next he’s trading in his spurs for driving shoes. “It’s time people start looking around for the Ferrari, or at least the Mitsubishi, which is what I really drive,” he says.
Nancy Sinatra’s boots may be made for walkin’, but it looks like her sister Tina’s walkin’ shoes are more on the order of pewter snake pumps, gold high-heeled sandals and black dotted-suede pumps. Di Fiori’s Orson Mozes tells Listen that’s what Tina recently picked up when her pal Suzanne Pleshette introduced her to his Beverly Hills shop.
If you want clothes that wear out well, take a tip from costume designer Betty Madden. She is responsible for the wardrobe worn by actors in the movie version of Jules Verne’s classic “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” currently in production for Cannon Films. Madden needed to create contemporary clothes that had to look worn-out from the long, hard journey inside the Earth’s core. So she went out and bought expensive, well-made garments from some of the city’s finest shops, including men’s English cotton shirts from Lew Ritter, hunting vests from Abercrombie & Fitch and children’s Osh-Kosh overalls from Saks. Then she sandpapered them to break down the fibers and treated them with bleaches. Why couldn’t she start with less expensive products? “Through the laundry process, they would have disintegrated,” Madden explained.
Coke is now being challenged by Pepsi in the clothing market, as well. The Pepsico company launched its Pepsi apparel America sportswear line at New York’s Hayden Planetarium on Tuesday. Rob Gregory, president of the VF Corp., which has the licensing for the collection of women’s, children’s and menswear, noted: “This line is not designed to compete against Coca-Cola.” Moments later, however, Pepsico President Robert Enrico inadvertently contradicted Gregory when he observed: “Coke apparel is a bit traditional. Pepsi is more on the leading edge. Welcome to the Cola wars!” As part of a fashion show, Coke cans were then projected on the star-studded planetarium screen with narration that referred to them as “damnable space garbage.” The Pepsi collection includes denim jackets, tapered and seamed jeans, fleece tunics, tops, sweat pants and a variety of T-shirts and sweat shirts featuring the Pepsi logo.
We couldn’t quite believe our eyes when a long list of testimonials by celebrities arrived on our desk, complete with their mutually admired beauty accessory--a toothpaste , no less. It says here that Super Smile is the fave rave of Kaye Ballard, Ben Gazzara, Martha Graham and Peter Allen. You don’t have to know Dr. Irwin Smigel, father of Super Smile, to know his toothpaste, but you have to fork over $8 per tube. It’s available by mail: Robell, 635 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10022, or in Beverly Hills at the office of Roger Lewis DDS.
