Vested Interests Expand to Business : FASHION
Model Christy Turlington and actor Woody Harrelson did a good deed for fashion without knowing it. They helped Elizabeth Minetree launch an accessories business. It began last spring when fashion stylist Minetree designed silky Jacquard vests with unusual buttons for the waiters at Piazza Rodeo cafe. Turlington and Harrelson liked them so much they wanted one. So did a lot of other people. Finally, a waiter suggested he and Minetree go into the vest-making business full time. Now she and waiter/actor Dean Stapleton are partners. Their label is Beaux; for winter, their colors are navy and green, with pastels coming for spring. And their one-style vest (classic, slightly oversized) is about $150, at Jana in Santa Monica.
WINNING COLORS: Designers Carl Jones and Thomas T. J. Walker have dared to be different with their new line, Cross Colours. T-shirts are flagged with anti-gang messages: “Stop The Violence,” and “Unity.” Caps, hooded sweat shirts and jeans are decorated in kente cloth and the brilliant colors that symbolize African unity: red for blood, green for earth, black for racial pride and gold for the sun. And they’re being noticed. Jones and Walker were nominated for the annual Marty Award for menswear, to be presented Thursday by the CaliforniaMart. More important to the kids who buy the clothes, celebs Stevie Wonder, rapper Young MC, and others have been wearing the label, carried at Fred Segal Melrose and Oaktree stores.
GOOD WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT: There are some new names on the mastheads at the fashion glossies. Ruth La Ferla, formerly of the New York Times Magazine is now executive editor at Elle, and Elizabeth Tilberis, who used to toil as editor of British Vogue, was named editor-in-chief at Harper’s Bazaar this week. Tilberis replaces Anthony T. Mazzola, who was at the helm of the magazine for 19 years. The production of a fashion monthly takes a long lead time, so don’t look for any of Tilberis’ fashion-shattering changes in the magazine until late summer or early fall.
C’EST LA GUERRE: Reports of its death have been vastly overrated, we hear from the makers of “C’est la Vie,” the perfume that Paris designer Christian Lacroix launched in 1990. It hasn’t exactly hit the sales heights since then. But the company’s U.S. fragrance operation is not closing, as was expected earlier this year. Instead, a new line of bath products will be available, along with the fragrance, starting this month at Saks stores.
BUTTON HOLD: New York designer Todd Oldham has designed a collection of buttons for the home sewing market, created to complement his new designs for Vogue Patterns. The arts and crafts-inspired buttons, some made of clay, will be similar to ones on his Times Seven shirt line, says a company spokesperson. The new buttons will be unveiled at the American Home Sewing and Craft Trade show in Las Vegas in March. In other fastener news: Diana Epstein and Millicent Safro have penned “Buttons” (Harry N. Abrams, $49.50), a 206-page coffee table-quality book filled with lavish color pictures of antique buttons.
DOUBLE DINARS: It looked as if Beverly Hills retailer Sami Dinar had made the big jump onto Rodeo Drive. A replica of his shop complete with black awning and futuristic mannequins was seen on the street of a thousand temptations earlier this week. But the storefront was only that--a front. The facade was built by a longtime Dinar customer, film director Robert Zemeckis, for a scene in his new movie, “Death Becomes Her,” starring Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep. The real Sami Dinar men’s store remains on Brighton Way.
