Hats Off to Anti-Malathion Efforts
MEDFLY MEDLEY:: Hat designer Elizabeth Marcel’s “Medfly” hat, at $250, has become the chic set’s anti-malathion fashion statement. Dotted with Mediterranean fruit flies (as well as grasshoppers and spiders) crafted of wire wrapped with antique chenille and silk, Marcel reports it is among the bestsellers at The Hat Gallery on Melrose Avenue. Also on the anti-malathion fashion front: a T-shirt with malathion-like droplets on the shoulders and the words, “What Malathion?” And there’s the Club Medfly shirt, which can be worn with a bow tie shaped like a Medfly.
SEXY SWEATS PLAY WARM UP: Soul 2 Soul, the jazzy-rap group that provided backup for lots of European runway fashion shows last spring, is launching its own sexy-sweats collection, a mix of shiny nylon, cotton and leather jogging separates worn over provocative lace lingerie. A show of the clothes served as opening act for the group’s Los Angeles concerts last weekend. And the look was not lost on audience members who scooped up the $20-$30 T-shirts for sale in the lobby and wore them over their own bicycle pants and short skirts. The line will be carried in two Soul 2 Soul shops in London and, next year, in one in Tokyo.
HEAVY ON STYLE FOR THE FLEET OF FOOT: Those great-looking track uniforms worn by Leroy Burrell and Carl Lewis at the Goodwill Games in Seattle were designed by Lewis himself. The light-blue shirts, with the Santa Monica Track Club logo on the front, had side panels of red cording that resembled a spider web. They looked for all the world like something designed by French couturier Claude Montana. Unfortunately, the shirts are not available to the public.
AISLE STYLE: Gene Kelly’s new bride, Patricia Ward, step-pause-stepped her way to the altar in designer togs from Saks Fifth Avenue. Her white suit with black pinstripes and a black velvet collar was by Bill Blass; her black straw hat was designed by Frank Olive. Kelly and Ward met while he was doing a television special for the Smithsonian and Ward was reporting the story for Smithsonian magazine.
FACIALS FEATURE: First came super-model Christy Turlington. “She’s responsible for sending everyone in,” says skin care expert Ole Henriksen. He has since tended to Turlington’s modeling pals, Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell and Elaine Irwin (as well as fashion photographer Steven Meisel). Campbell arrived at Henriksen’s Sunset Plaza salon wearing a form-fitting white Azzedine Alaia dress and white heels. No such dressing up for Turlington, who recently stopped by wearing what Henriksen calls her favorite attire: “shorts, a little linen shirt tied in a knot and a nice, golden tan.”
NEW YORK’S LOSS IS L.A.’S GAIN: Now that Bonwit Teller has closed all but four stores, several local designers find themselves with excess stock once earmarked for BT. So Harriet Selwyn, Peter Cohen, Rick Beach and Patti Cappalli put their heads and leftovers together and arranged a sale for Saturday and Sunday of spring and summer goodies, as well as some early fall pieces and samples, in a warehouse at 9072 Nemo St., West Hollywood. Their flyer promises 50% to 95% off.
THE WEEK-END SHOW: In Rome, the home city of Italian couture, a lavish finale was staged for the country’s top couture and ready-to-wear designers. In a mega-production televised worldwide, actress Joanna Pacula swept down the Spanish Steps in a gray chiffon, sequined Armani gown. Anthony Quinn accompanied a model dressed in a red cashmere outfit by Laura Biagiotti. And Ornella Muti soloed the steps in a red chiffon Valentino gown made in 1965.
