Long Live Eau De Lacroix
Paris designer Christian Lacroix launched his first fragrance, “C’est La Vie!” in the midst of this week’s couture collection showings. It won’t be available in the U. S. until September, however, when 600 stores are expected to stock it. So far no L. A. stores have announced that they signed up. The fragrance, which includes orange blossom and syringa (a white-flowering garden shrub from Lacroix’s native Provence) is bottled in crystal with a faux coral branch cap and will sell for $43 for about 1.7 ounces of eau de toilette to $163 for just over an ounce of perfume.
Comrades in Fashion
Mikhail Gorbachev and Lech Walesa have the dubious honor of being included in this year’s Fashion Foundation of America’s Best Dressed list. Gorbachev had been dropped from the list because he had no formal wear, but the foundation, in a forgiving gesture, reinstated him in the “Public Life” category for his “hat selection.” Stretching even farther for glasnost , a new position was made for Walesa, “International Labor.” He swept in the category of “solid color jackets.” The only local to make this year’s list of Best Dressed Men was L. A.’s own palimony attorney Marvin Mitchelson, for his “voluminous wardrobe.”
Trade Deficit
Other fashion news from the Soviet Bloc is likely to affect lower-level comrades. Soviet Jeansware is the label on the five-pocket, straight-leg jeans that feature a screwdriver on the zipper pull. The jeans have an international heritage--they are designed in Moscow, licensed in Italy, manufactured in Hong Kong and distributed in the United States by Seattle Pacific Industries. They will be available, for $68, at Bullock’s, Fred Segal, Ron Ross and The Broadway by the end of this month. Meanwhile, made-in-the-U. S. A. Levi 501’s reportedly sell for more then $150 on the Soviet black market, and you can’t buy Soviet Jeansware in Russia.
Curves Ahead
The forecast for the figure of the ‘90s is, in a word, voluptuous. The hot new mannequin, seen in Barney’s New York windows at Christmastime, is modeled on the substantial dimensions of actress, model and party girl Dianne Brill. While the well rounded Brill (vital stats 40-24-39) was making the talk show circuit in Los Angeles earlier this month, Saks Fifth Avenue was readying its trio of Brills for display.
Taylor-Made Party
Italian designer Valentino lured Elizabeth Taylor to Rome for a fund-raiser for AIDS. Taylor, chairwoman of the American Foundation for AIDS research, stayed at the cocktail party long enough to participate in the photo opportunity portion of the evening, then dashed. In her wake, she left 1,000 of Rome’s finest vastly disappointed because they did not get an up-close-and-personal look at Taylor. The crowd was allowed a glimpse of Valentino’s couture collection before he ran off to officially show it in Paris.
