Droopy Do
On the steamy movie set of “Rambo III” in Thailand, all is not well. Turns out the humidity there is putting a damper on Rambo’s hairdo. Listen hears that Sylvester Stallone, who stars in the picture, summoned hair stylist Bruce Wayne of the Umberto salon in Beverly Hills, on an urgent mission to reconstruct the big R’s coiffure. Wayne’s spokesman, Josh Barans, tells us Wayne calls the cut “the Cranalator” (a variation on the architectural term crenelation, as in the slotted parapets that look like jack-o-lantern teeth atop medieval castles). Translated to hair, the term connotes a spiky effect, and Wayne created the look just for Stallone last August. This could be the most expensive hair style ever. Maintenance costs now include round-trip air fare to Thailand as well as living expenses there.
Have Luggage, Will Travel
Remember we told you about Cary Grant’s luggage, which retailer Jerry Magnin of Polo in Beverly Hills purchased at auction for $1,870? Well, it turns out that the day following the sale, Sotheby’s auction house received a call from a Los Angeles woman who simply had to have the luggage for herself. Sotheby’s called Magnin. Magnin said he wasn’t interested in selling. The woman persisted. So Magnin named his price, and the woman walked into Polo the next day with a cashier’s check to retrieve the seven pieces of Hartman luggage. The price? Magnin won’t tell, but judging by the grin on his face, you can be sure he made a tidy profit.
High Tea
What do you wear to a Hong Kong tea? Wait--what is a Hong Kong tea? It’s an afternoon social event “more important than lunch or dinner,” said Cecile Shusheun, owner of Joss on Sunset Strip, during her restaurant’s launch of the midday snack. (Instead of serving scones and sweets as in England, in Hong Kong it’s dim sum and sweets.) As for appropriate clothing, Listen was most impressed with how Angelinos dressed for the event on a recent rainy day: lots of cardigans paired with short and long skirts, several of them by knitwear queen Sonia Rykiel. One teatoter remarked that Shusheun’s ankle-length knit ensemble in slate gray looked like an “Asian Sonia Rykiel.” In fact, it was designed by her brother, David Sheekwan, a Hong Kong designer whose Pellini stores are in New York and San Francisco.
Nothing to Schuss at
Julie Cleaver might not be a household name right now. But that could change soon, in ski chalets if not houses. This fashion design student at the Otis Parsons school was just named one of 22 finalists from around the world in a “creative sportswear” design competition sponsored by Mizuno sporting goods manufacturers of Japan. She takes off for Tokyo in February, where a jury including such stellar style setters as Matsuda and Kansai Yamamoto will chose the grand-prize winner. At stake among other things is 1 million yen, which could pay a skier for many trips up the rope tow. But can the fashion sketch of a sci-fi ski jump suit with bolero jacket that got Cleaver this far take her to the top? We’ll keep you posted.
An Opening With Glasnost
If you noticed Zsa Zsa Gabor’s husband (Prince Frederic von Anhalt) carrying Christmas presents down Rodeo Drive the other night, he was coming from Fred Hayman’s Giorgio boutique, where the champagne was flowing, the caviar was glowing and the balalaika music was in honor of Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s historic visit to the White House. It so happened that the arms control meeting coincided with the first meeting of Hayman’s men’s club. At the occasionally recurring gatherings, regular customers--all men--will be able to shop in private after hours. Supposedly they were buying presents for the women in their lives, Listen hears. And indeed several wives called ahead and told sales people exactly what to show husbands. But it turned out that most of the men bought presents for themselves. Ho-Ho-Ho.
More Moore
Hot on the trail of information about Bruce Willis’ bride, Demi Moore, Listen called Fred Segal on Melrose Avenue. We were told he comes in a lot; she isn’t a regular customer. But our sleuths were correct. Moore and her mother did visit the shop before the Las Vegas nuptials, gift hunting for Moore’s future mother-in-law. The actress was interested only in sweaters by Marika Contompasis, who designed the knits Moore wears in her next film, “The Seventh Sign.” She reportedly tried on some hats and bought a check-pattern sweater with little buttons for Willis’ mom, Marlene, but Moore didn’t buy a thing for herself.
Cracking a Peanut
When Peanut Power, a Beverly Center children’s store, had its opening party last week, a familiar face was in the crowd. Actress Valerie Harper was there with her husband, Tony Cacciotti. The couple are part owners of the store, with Canadian founder Yvette Cutrara. Harper tells Listen that she was working on a TV movie called “Dropout Mother” in Toronto last June when she and Cacciotti picked out a few things for their newly adopted daughter at the original Peanut Power store. “Tony’s an absolute entrepreneur,” Harper says. “He saw the stuff and thought it was wonderful.” Soon they became partners with the owner/designer, who had four Peanut Power stores in Canada. The Beverly Center store is the first in the United States, offering clothes priced from $5 to $40 for children up to age 7.
Write for Success
One of her first significant orders was the bridesmaid dresses for the wedding of Pat and John Kluge. (The bride wore Scaasi.) Indeed, Susan Jonal McCone’s Jonal boutique on Madison Avenue in New York continues to attract such an impressive array of socialites and businesswomen that she now publishes her own newsletter, which includes customer profiles. She writes the profiles herself, says McCone, a former attorney who doubles as the company’s designer, president and, of course, resident journalist. Because many of the women about whom she writes are bicoastal, McCone says she will probably open a shop in Los Angeles as well. For now, she brings her collection of cocktail and evening dresses (from $950 to $2,500) to Los Angeles for biannual order taking. She’ll be at the Hotel Bel-Air in March, she says, unless her new shop is open by then. Her prognostication for the future: “Poufs have already deflated.”
She’s Got the Blues
Fans of the nighttime soap “Falcon Crest” know her as Maggie Gioberti. Ad watchers know her as the woman in the Tylenol commercial. And now Listen knows her as a person who eats Indian cuisine and looks terriffic in blue. We spotted Susan Sullivan at a corner table in Gangadin’s Indian restaurant, Studio City, where she was eating finger food, drinking Indian beer and looking very sporty in a sky-blue turtleneck.
A Different Kind of Gift
In Listen’s mailbag this week was a gift idea from LifeStyles, the company that makes condoms. It’s a handsome, suede-like carrying case containing four of the company’s product, and the whole pack will sell for about $3.50 at Thrifty and other stores. Fortune magazine named the Lifestyles condom as a “product of the year” in its December issue, because it is made with extra strength latex and nonoxynol-9, which has been found to kill the AIDS virus in lab tests.
