And the Winner Is . . .
“I was asked, ‘Are you sitting down?’ ” designer Joseph Abboud recalls. Then came word that he had won this year’s award for menswear from the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Other winners, presumably also contacted on Monday and asked if they were sitting down, include Isaac Mizrahi for his women’s wear, Paloma Picasso for her accessories, and “young designer” Gordon Henderson. The voting committee, made up of national retailers and editors, named Oscar de la Renta winner of the CFDA lifetime achievement award and gave a special award to the Gap clothing chain for creativity in advertising. The winners will be honored at a Feb. 6 gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In the meantime, 39-year-old Abboud, who calls his menswear styles “American international,” believes the award “will drive me to work harder. I want to make sure it was well given.”
The Praises of Makeup
What does singer-actress Nancy Wilson remember about the beginnings of her career? For one thing, “there was really nothing in the way of makeup for my skin color,” she told her audience Tuesday night at the Broadway in Fox Hills mall. The Grammy Award-winning singer is touring the country on behalf of the Flori Roberts cosmetic line, which supposedly offers “everything you would need for more than 37 different skin tones.” The names are nice too. New shades for face, lips and nails come with monikers such as Forbidden Red, Quiet Fire and Paradise.
A Run on Hot Jackets
Dateline: Austin, Tex. Destination: The Mall. Drop-off point: The Gap. Customer in question (get ready): Don Johnson. Los Angeles-based costume designer Mary Kay Stolz tells Listen she was shopping for canvas flight jackets (she needed 12) for Johnson to wear in “The Hot Spot,” the movie he’ll star in--directed by Dennis Hopper--in Texas. Customers overhearing the store manager and Stolz talk about the order ran to the racks and grabbed every last jacket before Stolz could. She had to call other stores across the Lone Star State to fill her order.
Only Hairdresser Knows
On the set of his upcoming movie, “Daddy’s Dyin’ Who’s Got the Will,” actor Judge Reinhold has made a break with the clean-cut image he fostered in movies like “Beverly Hills Cop.” This time around, he sports shoulder-length hair for his character, Harmony, a hippie-esque drifter. Asked the exact nature of his new hairdo--extensions or a wig--he replied, “I’ll never tell--that’s part of the illusion.”
Vreeland Film Bio Due
Photographer Bruce Weber, of Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren advertisements fame, has been making films of late. His, “Broken Noses,” (1987) is about a group of young boxers, and this year he made a film about jazz trumpeter Chuck Baker, called “Let’s Get Lost.” Listen now hears that Weber is in preproduction stages with a documentary on a woman who pulled few punches and trumpeted many fashion trends during her lengthy career as a style maven: Diana Vreeland. No release date has been set on Weber’s film about the late fashion editor’s life story.
Coffee House Fashion
Seems like fashion shows are breaking out in the least likely locales. First there was Tyler/Trafficante’s combination wedding fall fashion preview where owners Richard Tyler and Lisa Trafficante tied the knot, in the store, just before the show. Then, the Pik Me Up, one of Los Angeles’ more popular coffee houses, staged a fashion show in celebration of the new expansion that allows space for a Art To Wear boutique. The funky presentation featured an ersatz Tony Orlando and Dawn as MCs. Hand-painted jackets by Vickie Berdnt and other items by Cheryl Hubbard, Kash Brouillet, Tawny Featherston and Lisa Weger were all part of the show.
A High-Stakes Nose Job
It costs $50 million to promote a new perfume, says perfumer and fifth-generation French “nose” Jean-Paul Guerlain, who introduced his Samsara at I. Magnin and Bullocks Wilshire. But if the sandalwood-and-jasmine fragrance is a hit, he says, the House of Guerlain will recoup its investment in a year. He’s quick to admit that it was a love affair with a British beauty, whose name he refuses to reveal, that inspired the new scent. Samsara means “eternal rebirth.” Guerlain says the secret to his success as a celebrated nose is not just a memory of odors--”I can’t help but analyze every new smell.” He adds, “If love is a sin, a good perfume obliges you to sin.”
