Evening Wear Woes : Benefactors Sound Off at Wayne Cancer Clinic Benefit Luncheon
A charity fashion show featuring chic cocktail dresses and gowns seemed the perfect place to find out what cogent comments women have about the current state of evening wear.
“It’s hard to find clothes within a certain price category,” one woman said emphatically. “You can find them for $300 and $3,000, but that in-between price is hard to find.”
“I’m looking for something that when I walk into a room every one of us doesn’t have on the same outfit,” said another.
The women were surveyed during the John Wayne Cancer Clinic (at UCLA) Auxiliary’s annual membership luncheon/fashion show/fund-raiser Wednesday.
This group of supporters (99% were women) gathered in the ballroom of the Regent Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills to view the 1990 Neiman Marcus gown collection in a runway show titled “A Little Night Magic,” produced by David Cardoza. Body-hugging evening wear by Vicky Tiel, Bob Mackie’s trademark glitzy sequins and Isabelle Allard’s slinky black lace gowns were paraded down the runway by models in the highest heels and Bardot hair.
But some of the 550 women present spoke plainly about the lack of affordable, elegant evening wear needed to maneuver through the upcoming hectic social season in style.
“I’m offended when I go into Chanel and somebody tells me that the jacket’s $3,000 and the skirt’s another $1,600. I’m not going to buy it,” said Gretchen Wayne, wife of Michael Wayne and a member of the auxiliary’s board of directors.
“I think you should be able to dress well and not look like everybody else. We need to have better quality in the clothing too, at a price that’s within reason for the people who are shopping. I’m not shy about spending money at all, but I don’t want to wear something that looks like a uniform. Otherwise I’ll go back to wearing my high school uniform.”
“Every year the John Wayne Cancer Clinic has a benefactor’s event in December, and I’ll be needing a gown for that, and one for our auxiliary’s major fund-raiser in April,” said Jackie Banchik, president of the auxiliary, who wore a white pique suit with gold embroidery. “If I don’t start looking now, forget it. Because I’m small, it’s hard for me to find things.”
Lorraine Lubin and Elaine Lerman, co-chairs of the luncheon, were pinning their hopes on New York designer Pamela Dennis, whose cocktail dresses and gowns were featured in the show.
“We can wear her clothes,” said Lubin. “They’re great for women in their 50s.”
“She has the freshest, most wonderful look of any new designer I’ve seen,” added Lerman.
Dennis, 30, who came to the show, said she never designs a collection without listening to her customers’ needs.
“I do a lot of trunk shows,” she said, “and I do listen to these women. I’m not just in this to make things that sit on a rack. They tell me they want to look classy but sexy at the same time. She really wants her husband to say, ‘Wow!’ I mean, that’s what I want.”
But not all the talk at the luncheon was about clothes. Celebrity host Jill Eikenberry (there with husband Michael Tucker) spoke of her battle with breast cancer and stressed the need for support and care of anyone faced with the disease.
So did honorary chairwoman Susan Dobson, who told of her mother’s bout with pancreatic cancer that doctors told her would take her life in three to six months. She then introduced her healthy mother to the crowd to wild applause.
Other guests were Michele Lee and Joan Van Ark; Joyce Green, executive director of the clinic; and more Wayne clan members, including Michael Wayne, Toni Wayne LaCava and Melinda Wayne Munoz. Dr. Donald L. Morton, chief of the cancer clinic, was presented with a check for $360,000, representing the money raised last year from the auxiliary’s events.
