Designer Keeps an Eye on Political Arena

His most visible client, Nancy Reagan, is months away from leaving the White House, but Los Angeles designer David Hayes is already speculating about his role as designer among the hopefuls on the campaign trail and during the next Administration.

“I’d love Mrs. Dole to be the running mate for Bush,” Hayes said following an appearance at Bullocks Wilshire, where he showed his fall collection. “She is a devoted customer.”

Fashion Hopes

As for future possible first ladies, Hayes says he holds little fashion hope for Barbara Bush. “She could have learned something from Mrs. Reagan, but she didn’t,” he sighed. “I don’t like her fashion look at all.”

Kitty Dukakis, wife of the Democratic contender, already owns at least two Hayes designs, he said, one of which (a navy-and-white silk confetti print dress) she wore in a photograph in Time magazine. “She’s got a good figure. She’s nice looking, but I’d like her a little jazzier. I’d like her hair to get a little messed up.”

Looking back, Hayes, who specializes in timeless tailored suits and dresses, and in recent years, evening wear, says there is no question that Nancy Reagan’s business boosted his sales and made his name instantly recognizable. Indeed, for the past eight years Washington has been his best city in terms of sales volume.

And it was in large part because of Reagan’s demand for evening clothes, he said, that he added evening wear to his line four years ago. Reagan’s closet is well stocked with evening pajamas designed by Hayes, he added, a look which happens to be strong again this fall. “Oh, it was incredible,” he said of Reagan’s initial impact. “It immediately brought in a lot of stores all around the country. For us, it was plus-plus--business and prestige. I don’t think my business doubled, but she certainly was important to me six, seven years ago,” he said. That was when Reagan bought his line heavily and was frequently photographed wearing his clothes.

Active Social Life

“Less so now,” Hayes said, although he expects Reagan will continue to buy his designs once she leaves the White House. “I think they’ll have an active social life.”

Hayes believes that in recent years Reagan bought fewer of his clothes because of the Elizabeth Dole factor: When Dole became a good customer, Reagan was afraid to see herself, as they say, coming and going.

The outcome of the election isn’t likely to have an impact on sales of the pricey La Prairie skin-care line, but there is a connection. The company’s new chairwoman is Georgette Mosbacher, whose husband of three years is Texas oil man Robert Mosbacher, national finance chairman and chief lay adviser to George Bush.

With foreign investors, the Mosbachers (she is the former Georgette Paulsin Muir Barrie) bought La Prairie this year for more than $30 million.

Mosbacher, tall and slim with beauty-pageant looks, is the first to admit that La Prairie isn’t for every woman. For starters, buying the basic skin-care line, which is formulated in Switzerland and packaged in a plant in Massachusetts, means an investment of $175 to $900, depending on product size.

Educated Customers

“Our customer is the affluent, very well-groomed, very discerning individual who is educated, very educated, about what she puts on her face,” Mosbacher asserts.

As well she should be. What goes on her face are formulas based on placenta cells of “the famous black sheep of Switzerland.”

Mosbacher is the ideal pitchwoman for her products, and not just because, in her Galanos dresses and David Webb jewels, she blends into the world to which she caters. Being chummy with Ivana Trump is one thing. But Mosbacher also has “problematic skin.”

“I’ll be honest. I’ve tried everything, and I always went back to La Prairie. It’s been part of my regimen for seven years,” she says earnestly.