9 Men and 7,000 Women
The sex barrier breaks tomorrow night. That’s when nine male kingpins in L.A.’s fashion world will be inducted into the local branch of the Fashion Group, which is the nation’s most prestigious organization of fashion-industry executives. Until now, the Fashion Group has been all female--and there are many who think it still should be. In fact, attempts to change the national charter, so that men can be admitted, have all failed. But trust Los Angeles to find a way. The induction party, to be held at Hollywood Park race track, $l50 per ticket, will honor the men as “affiliates” instead of calling them members. This means they don’t pay dues and they can’t vote. But “it’s a step in the right direction,” says Sheri Mobley, L.A. regional director of Fashion Group and a believer in the co-ed approach. The nine new affiliates are: designer James Galanos; Carter Hawley Hale CEO Philip Hawley; designer David Hayes; Giorgio’s Fred Hayman; Los Angeles County Museum of Art costume and textile curator Ed Maeder; designer Nolan Miller; California Mart general manager Sidney Morse; Federated Stores’ vice chairman Allen I. Questrom; May Co. vice president James Watterson. Designer Rudi Gernreich will be inducted posthumously.
Jewels of the Oscar
Finally, the mystery of Cher’s one-earring Oscar acceptance outfit is unraveled. All you keen-eyed observers who noticed she wore two earrings all night but only one when she went up to accept her award have already figured somebody goofed. Well, in her haste to the podium, Cher apparently dropped one of the shoulder-length baubles. (They were made of gun metal, jet and crystal bugle beads by Kirk Ramsey for Bob Mackie.) According to designer Ret Turner, who works with Mackie, a Shrine Auditorium page spotted the fallen gem and rushed it to the green room in time for Cher’s post-Oscar photo session. Mackie had a hand in the other knock-out earrings of the evening as well--the enormous black and crystal flowers that Glenn Close wore. He asked Deanna Hamro of Prego to style them, to go with Close’s Giorgio Armani evening dress. Listen also heard that Anne Archer’s diamonds were the real thing, on loan from Harry Winston.
Something Old, Some New
Pene Delmage, social director of the St. James’s Club on Sunset Boulevard (there’s another in London), says she was in a pickle when friend Omar Sharif asked her to the Academy Awards at the last minute. Delmage had a dress she could wear (a long Grecian design by Frank Usher) but needed shoes and a handbag. A quick trip to Erik’s Shoes on Sunset Boulevard and she had what she needed. Looking back now, Delmage is pretty sure the last time she wore the gown, it was also an evening shared with Sharif. Oh well, he’d never seen the accessories before.
Going for Sainthood
Still at the club, we came face to face with Margaux Hemingway, who only hinted at the projects that brought her to Los Angeles. “Music and movies. I’m very superstitious,” she said, apologizing for not telling us more. We didn’t see a rabbit’s foot, but she did sport a large gold safety pin covered with charms. She also wore colorful bracelets from Mali, West Africa, and a diver’s watch. She acquired the timepiece “while purchasing a TV set. You can wear it anywhere,” she teased, “even to the St. James’s Club.” The same was obviously true of her riding boots, long-sleeve T-shirt and Armani jeans.
Don’t Ban the Bra Museum
What a relief. We hear from Frederick’s of Hollywood that due to popular demand, their Bra Museum reopened last week. The collection, which dates back to 1946, includes bygone styles with names like Push-Up, Plunge, Peekaboo and Pointed Missile. A number of celebrities have gotten into the act: Madonna, we are told, donated a tasseled bustier. Tony Curtis’ bra from “Some Like It Hot” is there too, along with contributions from Phyllis Diller, the Pointer Sisters, Mamie van Doren and former Supreme Mary Wilson. All the bras will be on display until May 31 at Frederick’s Hollywood Boulevard store.
Jawing About the Judds
The country singing Judds, Naomi and Wynonna, are going through changes. Wynonna (she’s the daughter) has been trimming down and working out with a personal fitness trainer who meets her every day, exercise mat in hand, at her tour bus. And Naomi is trading in her mile-high hairdos (yes, she does wear hairpieces, folks) for something a little less extreme. Listen hears from the Judds’ official tress-tender, Gina Furth, that it’s all part of getting ready for the Judds’ upcoming TV specials (four in all this year). “We had lots of conferences to talk about their new look,” Furth says. The plan, briefly put: “Tone it down.”
Cerruti in California
Italian designer Nino Cerruti was in California, says his spokeswoman Mary Hall Ross, to look at possible San Francisco sites for a Cerruti menswear shop. But he also checked in at the Patricia Morange shop in Beverly Hills, where his women’s collections bare sold. That visit turned up more celebrity news, Ross reports. Molly Ringwald had been in and selected two Cerruti suits for herself, one white linen and one pale-blue gabardine.
Husband-and-Wife Team
When Joseph Bologna and his wife, Renee Taylor, stopped in at I. Magnin, he did the shopping but she got the new clothes. Designer Maruscha (Miriam Parkes) tells Listen what happened after she showed them her spring collection. “Joe pulled out two dresses and said: ‘You’ve got to have them,’ ” Parkes reports, adding that she wasn’t surprised by his favorite dress. It’s a silk print, covered with famous faces from old Hollywood.
Coastal Access
New York Bound: Spoiled, the fragrance that Herb Fink created, is selling briskly at Fink’s Theodore shop in Beverly Hills and at Bullock’s. But New York hasn’t had a whiff. Now the news comes that Bloomingdale’s has won the exclusive right to sell Spoiled in Manhattan, where it will be launched July 4. More eastward expansion (“maybe”) is in the wind for Amen Wardy, the Orange County fashion purveyor with a shop of the same name. Wardy tells Listen he’s considering opening in Manhattan, where he’d like to buy an elegant townhouse in which to sell his collection of tippy-top designer clothes.
Labels and Stars
It’s not the average afternoon when one celeb shows up wearing a “planet” and another is wearing an “opera.” But that’s the plan for a fashion event with Hollywood stars modeling L.A. designer collections. Pat Colbert of “Dallas” is the one who’ll wear the Opera label, Antoinette Byron of “Women In Prison,” the sitcom, will take a twirl down the runway in designs by Planet. As for the others (stars and designers), we’ll find out details at the show. Aileen Katz, who’s helping organize the May 7 event at the Universal Sheraton hotel, tells us it’s a fund-raiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
