Playing It Totally Cool
While the rest of you were home watching the Winter Olympics, some of us had to work. Don’t think it isn’t exhausting, separating the totally cool from the just plain cool. Especially at what had to be the ne plus ultra of fashion events--Tuesday night’s Vogue magazine-Neiman Marcus party for Anne Klein designer Richard Tyler.
The dress code for women was complicated, but we narrowed it to four looks: the pantsuit, the slip dress (short and long), the cocktail dress and the leather look.
Even women with great bodies, we noticed, are putting a demure spin on those scanty slip dresses by wearing undershirts. This being L.A., though, the undershirt of choice Tuesday night was Azzedine Alaia’s black mesh body stocking. There was nothing demure about Vogue Editor Anna Wintour’s leather mini with silver buckles or Cher’s skintight leather pants. Both ladies were surrounded by circles of adoring men.
As usual, the men got off easy. A turtleneck, preferably black, with baggy trousers, a rumpled jacket and dark, moisture-rich hair hanging dangerously close to one eye was the look to have.
Halfway through the $100-a-ticket party, which benefited DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), a short anti-drug film directed by actor Johnny Depp was shown. But the crowd at Culver City’s Smashbox photo studio wasn’t terribly attentive.
Perhaps they were distracted by the likes of Heather Locklear, Linda Evangelista, Tatiana Patitz and Jeanne Tripplehorn.
For us, the apex of the evening was meeting three Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
And we’re not sure what exactly distracted Depp and sweetheart Kate Moss. They stayed out of sight most of the night.
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Shake, Rattle and Roll: Speaking of true love, we just might have found it. Is it sick to love your rollers?
After several bad-hair years, we broke down and bought a bag of old-fashioned brush rollers complete with pink plastic torture devices to anchor them to our scalp. Just let your hair dry about halfway, then wrap around the things--but no more than 1 1/2 times, cautions Joseph Kendall, owner of JosephMartin in Beverly Hills. Otherwise you’ll get “tight, over-curly hair.” Trust us.
“I’m just not used to seeing your hair so fluffy on top,” Mr. Inside Out said the other night. We’re just a little too tightly wound, we explained. He understood.
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Unreality Bites: There are really two films in the documentary “Christy Turlington Backstage,” on Lifetime Television on Sunday at 10 p.m. The dominant one focuses on the collections presented last fall in Milan, Paris and New York. The shows are mostly boring, as is Turlington’s PR-ish sounding narration.
But an interview with a tired and introspective Turlington, shot in black and white, offers glimpses of the not-so-pretty side of modeling. “After weeks of being touched and poked at, I just want to stay in one place for a very long time and not see anyone,” said the model renowned for her niceness.
If only director Robert Leacock, son of cinema verite pioneer Richard Leacock, hadn’t chopped up the interview--MTV-style--to intersperse among the fashion shows, Turlington might have come across as a real-life, complicated woman and not just a vehicle for sound bites.
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He Likes Red--a Lot: It’s a busy time for Beverly Hills shopkeeper Fred Hayman, who serves as official fashion police for the Oscars. Dozens of glamorous designer gowns have arrived at his store from around the world. Soon too shall dozens of nominees and presenters--in search of the sufficiently dazzling ensemble.
“Stars shouldn’t just wear anything they want to,” said Hayman, a sentiment he spells out in a letter detailing everyone’s obligation to look glamorous. “They should not let the fans down.”
And who needs to when every designer in the world is vying for exposure on the March 21 show watched by more than a billion people? Some designers begin soliciting actresses even before the nominations are announced. But Hayman is prepared for those who may procrastinate. “We are open the Sunday before for last-minute details.”
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You’re Not Getting Older, You’re Getting Better: At the Women in Film luncheon this week at the Regent Beverly Wilshire, one woman said to another: “That looks like Raquel Welch’s younger sister, doesn’t it?” Close. It was Raquel. . . . With smooth skin and long, glamorous hair, she looked marvelous.
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The Family Jewels: British Prime Minister John Major says it’s for him to decide who gets to wear official jewelry, according to Reuters.
His statement comes on the heels of reports that his predecessor, Margaret Thatcher, was annoyed at seeing Mrs. Major wearing one of Thatcher’s favorite necklaces. Thatcher was given the $150,000 necklace by a Middle East head of state when she was prime minister. Asked by an opposition politician how gifts made to the prime minister were to be used, and in the case of jewelry, who was entitled to wear it, Major replied: “These are matters for the prime minister’s discretion.”
Inside Out is published Fridays.
