On the Woolmark
Menswear movers-and-shakers Jhane Barnes, Hugo Boss, Joe Boxer, Dolce & Gabbana, Isaac Mizrahi and Gianni Versace are winners of this year’s Wool Bureau Woolmark Awards. The awards were presented in New York last night during a gala ceremony that featured singer Lena Horne as emcee. A special honor went to Ventura-based Patagonia “for its efforts in helping to heal the environment through corporate programs and for encouraging its customers to become enthusiastic caretakers of the Earth.”
* PRETTY WOMAN AND MATERIAL GIRL: Julia Roberts and Madonna have similar shopping habits, they both buy Manolo Blahnik shoes in quantity. Recently, in Fred Hayman Beverly Hills’ shoe salon, Roberts selected four identical pair of satin sling back pumps for her bridesmaids to wear at the upcoming Roberts/Kiefer Sutherland nuptials and Madonna went for multiple pairs of mules in white patent and coral suede, each with a large pilgrim-style buckle.
* SCENT OF THE CITY: What keeps Bijan smiling? His perfume sales. For the last four years his Bijan for women has been the No. 1 selling fragrance at Saks Fifth Avenue stores nationwide. This year it topped the charts at Bullock’s. The most popular size is the $60, 2.5 ounces of Eau de Parfum, says company spokeswoman Zy Hafeez, who includes Maria Shriver, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Bo Derek in her list of Bijan devotees.
* TIE-IN: Buy a tie, help send a child to camp. That’s the deal this month at Rick Pallack in Sherman Oaks. Pallack, who received the 1990 career achievement award from the Boy Scouts of America, is reciprocating by donating 10% of his June neckwear sales to the organization. He hopes to make 50 disabled Boy and Girl Scouts into happy campers and is counting on a stock of 10,000 imported silk ties, priced $30 to $50, to do the trick.
* A DOMINICAN IN PARIS: Oscar de la Renta came to town this week with the fall ’91 collection he first showed in Paris. He said he’s still smarting from the French newspaper reviews that criticized the collection as too French--or not French enough. “A negative review by a respected journalist is damaging,” he said, during a store appearance at Saks in Beverly Hills. No Paris stores have yet ordered the line, but he added 23 new accounts in England, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. Bloodied perhaps but unbowed, he said he has already booked a return date to show in Paris Oct. 22. Before then he’ll launch a shoe collection and a new fragrance, his third.
* FAUX BY PHONE: Some people just can’t resist the celebrity sell. When Carol Channing appeared on QVC, the cable shopping channel, with her “Broadway Collection” of simulated diamond jewelry, the phones didn’t stop ringing. “Over 90% of the collection sold out,” says Ellen Campbell, QVC’s vice president of consumer affairs. That comes to $1.6 million in orders, but Campbell won’t say how much of that will end up in Channing’s pocket. Her celebrity saleslady gig seems to be part of a trend. Morgan Fairchild introduced a collection too. Both are made by Diamonique, a fully owned subsidiary of QVC.
* GOOD SPORTS: Menswear designer Henry Grethel is going to the 1992 Olympics on the back of the U.S. team. He has been chosen by the United States Olympic Committee and JC Penney to design parade outfits for 1,100 members of the U.S. team that will be worn in the opening ceremonies at both the Winter Games in Albertville, France and the Summer Games of the XXV Olympiad in Barcelona, Spain. JC Penney is underwriting the cost of the uniforms and has donated $12.5 million to the U.S. Olympic Committee from the sale of USA Olympic brand merchandise.
