Cash, Quiche a Good Combo for CHS Bash
The quiche was divinely riche , but it was a peek at 1987 Wimbledon champ Pat Cash that members of the Children’s Home Society hungered for at a fashion show and brunch.
The 22-year-old Aussie, who is making accessory waves with the sparkling diamond stud he sports on his left ear, had declined to model men’s finery for society members before playing in the finals of the Hartmarx Tennis Classic at the John Wayne Tennis Club.
“Pat didn’t want to disturb his concentration,” said Joseph Starzec, senior vice president with Racquet Club Apparel, during the society’s $50-per-person brunch and fashion show Sunday at the Newporter Resort. “He’s relaxed about fashion and intense about tennis.”
No matter. Cash might just as well have been stalking the ramp with tennis pros John Fitzgerald, Vijay Amritraj and Kevin Curren (who upset the favored Cash to win the Hartmarx classic) for all the discussion about him by show commentator Thomas Gurtner.
“Cash may do for the diamond stud what football great Jim McMahon did for the headband,” Gurtner said. And let’s not forget what Chris Evert did for the diamond “tennis bracelet.”
“Cash is fashionable because he’s a winner, freer than most mortals to be an individual,” Gurtner said, noting that individuality has always been the key to style.
Children’s Home Society members, who weren’t able to view Cash in one of Racquet Club Apparel’s dapper business suits, got an eyeful of his colorful on-court attire: A black-and-white checkerboard headband reigned in his shaggy brown hair; his wristbands were a mismatched pair in peacock blue and flamingo coral, and teal green and red stripes played across the front of his pristine white shirt. And that sparkler--tricky to spot in the blinding sunlight--served up occasional volleys of refracted flash.
At a party the night before, Cash had looked as though he’d walked off the cover of Gentlemen’s Quarterly magazine, Starzec said, when he arrived for the chic get-together at the Newporter for tourney participants and customers of Hartmarx Corp., a $1.1 billion Fortune 500 company celebrating 100 years in the clothing business.
“He wore, oh, I don’t know, purply-silky pants, a white shirt and had his lovely girlfriend, Anne-Britt Khristiansen, with him,” Starzec said.
The champ stayed until the party ended, he said, “but didn’t drink alcohol--only orange juice.”
Orange juice, along with the sinfully riche quiche and strawberries-with-cream were on the “Serve Love” brunch menu for members of the Children’s Home Society. Table centerpieces of clear tennis ball containers bearing lemon-yellow daises and tennis balls and hearts on sticks, were the creation of Irvine watercolorist Ron Roesch, who has been a supporter of the society for the last 12 years, according to Nanette Sutherland, event chairwoman and chairwoman of fund development for the society’s regional board.
Sutherland estimated benefit proceeds at approximately $5,000. “For this year’s tournament, Hallmarx said they’d let us have one dollar from every gate ticket,” she said.
Committee members included Rebecca Brundage, Allison Deerr, Pat Prickett, Kathy De Peri and Helen Hamilton. Melissa Dodson, director of the southern region for Childen’s Home Society of California and Dorothy Fitzgerald, director of volunteer services, were among the guests.
The society--with its southern region office in Santa Ana--serves children through adoption, foster care, child care, counseling of expectant parents, public education and child advocacy services.
