Chanel Store Opens in a Style Equal to Mademoiselle Herself
Even Coco Chanel would have said, “Oui, oui!”
The gala opening of the Chanel boutique at South Coast Plaza Sunday was as classic as Chanel herself.
No garish red carpet greeted these party-goers, 500 supporters of Opera Pacific.
Certainly not. Instead, a cream-colored carpet the color of fine pearls was unrolled for guests visiting the Carrara-marble clad store, one of three in California (Chanel cognoscenti know the other two are in San Francisco and Beverly Hills).
Forget planter boxes that just showcase greenery during galas held in shopping malls. On this night, Chanel accessorized South Coast Plaza’s planters with white orchids-- hundreds of them--thank you very much.
Truth is, admitted Chanel President Arie Kopelman, Chanel was hard-put to open a boutique in a mall. “We prefer a free-standing store,” Kopelman said. But Henry Segerstrom, managing partner of C.J. Segerstrom & Sons with Hal Segerstrom, convinced the stylish executive that South Coast Plaza was the place to hole up in Orange County.
But first, Kopelman said, he needed to be assured he would get the locale--the spot right across from Tiffany & Co. He did.
And then, Kopelman said, he needed to be assured that the front of the boutique would jut out so that the shop would look as if it was free-standing. It does.
Now then. Chanel taught Orange County a thing or two about dressing up when it staged a showing of its fall/winter 1990 collection at the affair. Everybody knows some members of Orange County society like to step out in Technicolor, show off their aerobicized bodies in rose-pink, apple green, even sunshine yellow on occasion.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Black alone--especially the little black suit with the elongated jacket--or black with cream is the appropriate look for night. (Unless, of course, you’re attending a gorgeous white-tie gala in an equally gorgeous ballroom. Then you might want to step into one of Chanel’s jewel-tone couture creations.)
Jeanette Segerstrom--Hal Segerstrom’s wife and honorary chairwoman of the gala--epitomized the classic Chanel evening look in a black-and-cream cocktail suit. “I feel wonderful in it,” said Jeanette, a member of the Opera Pacific board. “I just wish it wasn’t so warm tonight!”
No problem. French bubbly helped the guests forget the lack of fresh air, and so did a few fancy hors d’oeuvres.
After all was said and done, the guests seemed happy with the Chanel silhouettes created by Karl Lagerfeld, especially the divinely cut black cocktail suits and the billowing open-skirted evening gowns. “I’d buy one of those gowns in a minute,” chirped Barbara Glabman. “If I could sew up the front!”
Also on the scene: gala co-chairwomen Donna Bunce and Gayle Anderson; Opera Pacific board chairwoman Floss Schumacher; Barbara Cirkva, Chanel senior vice president (perfectly chic in short black crepe); and Opera Pacific director David DiChiera, with his wife, Karen. And just about everybody else who is anybody in Orange County.
Ciao!: While supporters of Opera Pacific were celebrating the fashions of France, supporters of the Laguna Art Museum were celebrating the culinary joys of Italy at the home of Dorothy and Donald Bendetti Sunday night. Up for tasting in the Bendettis’ beautiful Emerald Bay home: mouthwatering fare cooked up by Ambrosia of Beverly Hills. On the menu: platters of antipasto, grilled tuna medallions with Italian olive relish, pork roast with braised fennel, and fried eggplant with buffalo mozzarella. Dessert? Torte a la Tuscany.
And this supper was served on plates the Bendettis bought on the romantic Amalfi coast. Eat your heart out, Wolfgang Puck. The supper was part of the museum’s “Perspectives” fund-raising party series.
Social Scoop: Renee and Henry Segerstrom will stage a cocktail party for museum directors and curators from around the world on Wednesday night in their Newport Bay home. The party--sure to be special (and impossible to get into unless you’re a very , very arty type)--precedes a dinner for members of the Comite International Pour les Musees that will be held in the Isamu Noguchi California Scenario Garden in Costa Mesa. Also attending: representatives of the California/International Arts Foundation.
