A New Biography That’s All About Yves
On the shopping lists of all those gathered in Paris this week for the Spring ’94 collections is the just-published biography of Yves Saint Laurent.
Even though the designer gave the project his blessing, he declined to be interviewed by author Laurence Benaim for “Yves Saint Laurent.” But Saint Laurent’s longtime partner, Pierre Berge, expresses mixed feelings about the book in the Oct. 15 issue of W.
“Of course, people want to know about his career, his childhood,” says Berge. “But for me, there are too many alcohol, drug and sex stories.”
Though never enough, we suspect, for readers.
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Hollywood Royalty: Roseanne Arnold popped into a Sunset Plaza jewelry store this week a mere domestic goddess, and emerged a queen. Says Nicky Butler, of Butler & Wilson, the actress spied a vintage tiara once owned by a Tournament of Roses queen and plopped the piece onto her head. “I’m never taking this off!” she cackled, and true to her word, Her Majesty walked out of the store and onto Sunset Boulevard. We could have sworn the crown was there all along.
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Door No. 1, Monty: Gift-loving fashion types couldn’t contain their excitement over what treasures awaited them inside the little orange boxes at the Hermes show Tuesday morning in Beverly Hills. Too small for a saddle. Too large for a perfume sample. “Perhaps it’s a purse,” speculated one young woman. We guessed a whip. “Oh, I’m afraid you think there’s something wonderful inside,” apologized the store’s manager, “but it’s only your breakfast.”
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Good Fashion Advice Never Dies: The late actress Gloria Swanson offered style words to live by in two very different settings this week. At a cocktail party thrown by Salvatore Ferragamo to honor Swanson (tied to the upcoming premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Sunset Boulevard”), the actress’ shoe philosophy was proffered. “Shoes and lamp shades should never be noticed,” Swanson is supposed to have said. Easy for her to say. She wore a Size 3 1/2. Swanson reappears as a fashion maven in a preview of People magazine’s Best & Worst Dressed of ’93 issue, which hits the stands Monday. “Don’t make the mistake of wearing dark shoes with a light-colored dress,” cautioned Swanson. “That cuts you right smack off at the ankles.” If only People’s honorees had listened . . .
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Miller Time: Nicole Miller has designed a line of ties, scarves and vests commissioned by the people at California Pizza Kitchen. Although we’re not sure why anyone not associated with the restaurant would want to wear a $60 black silk tie awash with duck, garlic and sausage pizzas, many have heeded the call. (These same folks might be interested to learn that Pepsi, Taco Bell and Stolichnaya have their own brands of Nicole Miller ties.) The irony of corporate designs crossing over in the retail world hit home, said chain spokeswoman Sarah Goldsmith, when a store that had recently received a shipment of the ties called the restaurant’s West L.A. headquarters. “They thought we’d be interested in buying them.”
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Mixed Messages: A few new ecology-minded beauty products arrived on our doorstep the other day from Santa Monica’s EcoloyHair Care. The “environmentally conscious” items sounded like they were made in a forest by elves--Slippery Elm Gloss, Oak Bark Gel, Laurel Tree Hair Spray and Thyme Gel-Mousse. Problem was, the samples were shipped in a mountain of those foam peanuts that take till the end of the next millennium to decompose. The line--sans foam--is sold at Carlton International hair salons.
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Shopping Sagas: We’ve never seen so many cool, Range Rover-driving Westsiders looking so happy as at the famous Fred Segal sale in Santa Monica this week. “The customers have been really pleasant,” a salesclerk who’d staffed the last seven sales told us. “Most of them.” We found it odd, though, that we weren’t allowed to try on both of a pair of Claude Montana shoes that had caught our fancy. Things are so frantic during the sale, explained a shoe clerk, that it’s easy to lose track of who’s walking out in what shoes. So with the faith of a woman who has to have a certain pair of shoes, we plunked down our cash and prayed that the missing left shoe would fit. Does anyone know if faille stretches?
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Rub-a-Dub-Dub: After seeing him in action at the Bullock’s/Macy’s Passport show Tuesday night, we gotta hand it to a seductive party crasher named Nikita. The ponytailed charmer crouched at our feet, which had been swinging impatiently in the aisle, and purred, “These feet are crying out for a massage.” A half-hearted stab at through-the-shoe reflexology followed. As the lights dimmed, Nikita, with his official-looking name tag, squeezed himself into an empty seat in our row and proceeded to whistle, clap and stomp his feet at every model on the runway. With all that enthusiasm being generated, we slipped out early--to catch “Beavis and Butt-head”--all but unnoticed.
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Around Town: What do those newly nonprofit Scientologists wear to their gala dinner dance? Why, gala gowns, of course, many of them rented for the evening at One Night Affair in Westwood . . .
