Life at the Top Shops : Party: The opening for Two Rodeo Drive complex drew 1,200 people. Most of the guests were Blue Ribbon members.
Three of life’s peak experiences--eating, celebrating and shopping--were combined when the new Beverly Hills Two Rodeo Drive complex had its official opening Sunday night.
The walk-through complex of expensive and chic shops and restaurants has been described variously as a movie-set interpretation of an outdoor shopping mall, a high-end Disneyland for shoppers and the world’s most exclusive mini-mall. About 1,200 people roamed through for the opening party, being wined, dined and entertained.
Acting as hosts were Two Rodeo Associates, a collection of real estate development companies that owns the 125,000-square-foot area.
The bulk of the guests were the Music Center’s Blue Ribbon members and their significant others.
Accustomed to raising money for the resident companies of the Music Center, this night they weren’t fund raising for anything, but were tempted instead to part with their cash in such shops as Charles Jourdan, Cole-Haan, Christian Dior and Cartier, all open for business.
Other shops, including the Valentino and Gianfranco Ferre boutiques, Tiffany and a Jose Eber salon have yet to open, and some space still has not been leased. That had some people wondering aloud how well these stores would do in tough financial times.
Doug Stitzel, president of the Stitzel Co., one of partners in Two Rodeo Associates, says they’ll do just fine.
“I think that there’s a certain level of merchandising and retailing that’s somewhat immune to the vagaries of the economy,” he said.
No one seemed preoccupied with the high cost of luxury goods as they strolled in and out of stores and by buffet tables laden with shrimp, cannelloni, imported cheeses, petits fours, brownies and the ubiquitous chocolate-dipped strawberries, courtesy of Rococo.
This upscale fete (coordinated by Party Planners West) wasn’t without its kitsch, including a couple of Keystone Kops, an organ grinder and trained monkey and a few Dickensian-type characters.
But shopping and eating weren’t the only forms of entertainment. Performing in various areas of the complex were Reese Holland from “Phantom of the Opera,” and young dancers from the Stanley Holden Dance Center, who practiced their pirouettes and plies in what will be the Eber salon.
“They got to meet (Joffrey Ballet artistic director) Gerald Arpino--they were especially thrilled about that,” said dance teacher Deborah Hargrove as passersby peeked in at the dancers and exclaimed, “How adorable !”
Spotted in the crowd were the party’s co-chairs, Sandra Ausman and Debbie Tellefsen, both of Blue Ribbon; Blue Ribbon President Joanne Kozberg, Ellen and Berny Byrens, Eber, interior designer Waldo Fernandez, Nancy and Tim Vreeland, Barbara Davis, Marcia Weisman, Dorie and Joe Pinola, Annette and Peter O’Malley, Madame Sylvia Wu, Alan and Nancy Livingston, Jacques Camus, Joan Hotchkis, Beverly Hills Mayor Allan Alexander, Councilman (and former mayor) Max Salter, and Sholem Greenbaum, director of Berisford Properties, another Two Rodeo Associates partner.
