Center of Fashion in Eye of the Storm : Controversy: Plagued by internal dissent and financial hardship, glitzy O.C. benefit will likely be delayed until 1995.

At a time when contributions to the Orange County Performing Arts Center have already been hard hit by the recession, organizers of a big fund-raiser for the center--the glitzy annual Center of Fashion show--are preparing to cancel this year’s gala.

Beset by internal dissent and financial hardship among retailers, board members of the center’s guilds--the support group that organizes the benefit--will meet Thursday to consider a recommendation by its executive committee to delay this year’s event, which would have been the fifth annual, until the fall of 1995.

“We just need a little between time,” said Shari Esayian, a Newport Beach resident who will become chairwoman of a 1995 event.

Esayian, who was Center of Fashion chairwoman in 1991, said the guilds circulated a questionnaire among the fashion retailers who participated in last year’s show, and “everyone felt it needed a little rest.”

She noted that even if the board decided it wanted to sponsor a show this fall, “we’re too late” to put it together.

Mary Sutherland, the center’s new managing director of development, said of the potential loss of funds: “If there are any decisions that affect the budget of an organization, what one does is find ways to make up for whatever holes may be punched into a budget.”

Although the ’93 show brought in approximately $105,000 for the center, the event cost more than $300,000 to produce because the guilds paid for the professional dancers, producers, printing and rent for the center. The 1990 show made $110,000, followed by $175,000 the next year and $150,000 for 1992.

A show cancellation would mean more bad economic news for the center, which last week announced that it missed its 1993 fund-raising goal by 20% and had to dip into a “programming subsidy” to avoid red ink. The center had established a fund-raising goal of $5 million, but $4.1 million was raised.

Postponing the fund-raiser would also be a setback to many involved with the production. The annual fall event features guild members and professional models wearing designer fashions from upscale Orange County stores. Last year, its afternoon and evening shows attracted an audience of more than 4,000.

The guilds are the oldest center support group. They were established 15 years ago to help build the center, which opened in 1986, and now have 2,600 members throughout the county. The nine guilds continue to donate money to the center for its operating expenses; last year they donated about $500,000, according to Greg Patterson, center spokesman.

“We don’t directly receive revenues from the Center of Fashion,” Patterson said. “When they give money back to the center . . . it’s in one lump sum. The guilds have many activities, and the Center of Fashion is (just) one of them.”

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Money is also a problem for the show’s participants. Esayian said the guilds are finding it difficult to ask stores year in and year out to come up with the $2,500 required to be represented in the show.

“It’s a heavy tapping of the same people,” she said of the 19 stores that participated last year. “Retailers almost make one (payment) when it’s time to hit them for another.”

In addition to the entry fee, retailers incur extra costs to promote the event within their stores and loan fashions for the production.

“As much as we’d love to support the Performing Arts Center, it is very, very expensive,” said Michele Vicale, store manager of South Coast Plaza’s Escada, which dropped out of the show after participating in 1992.

“These days you want the maximum amount of exposure for your dollar, but at the Center of Fashion you share the stage with so many people. It’s a much better return when you go one-on-one with a group,” said Vicale, who instead of participating in the Center of Fashion last year invited the guilds’ Sound of Music chapter into the store for informal modeling.

“As budgets get cut back, it’s always the promotions and marketing that goes first, before staff,” she said.

Vicale would also like the guilds to change the production.

“People are ready for a different format. I just don’t know how many years you can keep doing the same thing,” she said. “The novelty of it has worn off.”

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The guilds began reviewing the Center of Fashion’s format after last year’s production raised complaints within guild ranks about the show’s direction.

Some members said the Center of Fashion was alienating its community supporters by putting too much emphasis on producing a slick, professional show. Specifically, they complained the model selection process had become too stringent, and that powerful Orange County women who had contributed big dollars to the center were being left off the model list because they didn’t have model figures.

“They didn’t use enough of the doers and shakers in the community. It became more of a professional model show,” said Janice Johnson, a former guilds chairwoman who founded the Center of Fashion.

Last year the Center of Fashion added about 20 professionals to its roster of 100 amateur models. Auditions were held so that only those guild members who met strict size, weight and appearance requirements were allowed to model.

“A lot of our top women in the community weren’t asked to model,” Johnson said. “You need the whole community in back of (the show) and excited about it.”

Johnson got the idea for the show from a similar fund-raiser that’s been held in Chicago for a Presbyterian hospital for 75 years. That show uses no professional models.

“It’s a huge success, and it’s a totally amateur show,” she said. “This could have been just as successful. You have to use the community to make it attractive (for people) to be in it. They should have kept it an amateur show.”

Organizers said a one-year delay would give the board time to re-evaluate finances and the model-selection process.

“A lot of us feel it’s time to do some changes,” said Marlene Short, chairwoman of the guilds.

“We’ve argued over the process,” said Fiona Petersen, who served as guilds chairwoman for two years before Short. Pleasing “the stores is important--they pay money to be in the show--but we want the guild members to participate. First and foremost in our minds is, this is a guild event.”

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For the guilds, wooing retailers to enter the show every year is a challenge. Not all stores feel they fit into the high-gloss, large-scale show.

“We won’t do it again,” said Alison Cottrell, manager of Calvin Klein in South Coast Plaza. Calvin Klein participated in the show for the first time last year.

“It was a real inconvenience, and as far as rewards, we didn’t get any,” Cottrell said. “A lot of people who attended aren’t Calvin Klein customers. Calvin Klein is a little more understated than what a lot of those people are looking for.”

After the store paid the entry fee as well as extra staff to transport the clothes back and forth to the show, Cottrell said the show attracted no new customers to Calvin Klein.

“The concept behind the show is fabulous, and it’s nice to contribute to the community, but not to get anything back was frustrating,” she said.

Other retailers have found the Center of Fashion to be a positive experience. Mi Place in Laguna Niguel and Fullerton has participated every year, and co-owner Mary Rubenstein said the stores have always seen a return on their investment.

“We rent a bus and bring people (to lunch and) to the show. My customers love going. We make it a whole day,” Rubenstein said. “If it were just the show, it wouldn’t be worth it. We make it work for ourselves.”