Designer’s Daytime Look Has That Freudian Touch
British designer Bella Freud, whose father is artist Lucien Freud and whose grandfather was Sigmund Freud, popped up here after her London show to interest buyers in her spring collection.
We wouldn’t have even seen Freud had we not been prowling the corridors of our idiosyncratic-but-well-located hotel in search of junk food. A sign led us to a tiny room where four rolling racks of polished, youthful suits and dressy tops caught our eye.
Freud, who for years worked as Vivienne Westwood’s assistant, said she designs dressy daytime looks for a fantasy girl “who’s a little wild.” Fantasy has replaced Freud’s original fashion heroine, Claudine, from the Colette books.
Asked about her line’s label, which bears a drawing of a silly dog whose tongue hangs out, she said matter-of-factly: “My dad did it. He’s kind of handy that way.”
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Fun Couple: Model Janice Dickinson and Vogue publisher Ronald A. Galotti were gushing over each other here as she taped a fashion segment for TV’s “American Journal.”
“This is college for me,” she said, sprawling at the end of the runway where the Hermes show had just taken place. Post-graduate work, said the dark-haired beauty and former Sly Stallone flame, will be hosting a style show on the Disney Channel. “I’m gonna put Minnie Mouse in Lagerfeld,” she boasted. (Hadn’t “the Kaiser” dreamed up Miss Mouse’s cartooney get-up in the first place?)
Dickinson admitted that covering the fashion shows made her nostalgic for the runway. “But more than modeling, I miss that time of my life.” We, too, yearn for those madcap days of yore.
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Young Blood: What are the signs that a young designer’s star is ascending? In the case of John Rochas, there are quite a few. Director Jim Sheridan (“The Commitments”) was in the audience of Rochas’ Paris debut last week, working on a documentary about the designer. And singer Sinead O’Connor took to the runway to model the clothes. Ah, the luck of the Irish.
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Missing in Action: Black models fairly dominated the runways in the mid-’80s, but the list of well-known names who worked this season’s Paris shows was short: Tyra, Naomi Campbell, Beverly Peele, Brandi and Chrystele. Has the influx of Eastern European talent driven away models of color? Or were they discouraged by fashion’s short-lived fascination with waifs? More important, will the dearth continue at the American designer shows in New York at month’s end? We hope not.
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Meanwhile, Back in L.A.: We battle sluggishness with toxic chemicals like caffeine and sugar, but Evelyn Lauder’s Rx for superhuman energy is a health drink made of low-fat yogurt, bananas, strawberries and carrot juice.
At a press breakfast last week for the cosmetics exec’s landscape photography book, “The Seasons Observed,” she directed the Four Seasons’ kitchen to make up enough for everyone, whether they needed it or not. She certainly did--with just 24 hours to spend in L.A. last week, Estee’s daughter-in-law squeezed in a cocktail party, TV appearance, press breakfast and book signings at Neiman Marcus and Bullock’s. (Her book royalties go to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.) This left barely enough time for her to reapply her persimmon lipstick, which matched her Chanel boucle jacket, before racing off to do more of the same in Santa Barbara.
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Party Animals: Rodeo Drive was crawling with party hoppers Thursday night on the stretch between Gucci and Fred. Gucci’s benefit for the California State Summer School for the Arts was co-hosted by Kelsey Grammer and Peri Gilpin of “Frasier.”
“(The character) Daphne and I aspire to Gucci,” said Gilpin, who plays Roz. “Frasier would wear it, but Niles wouldn’t--it’d be too risque for him.” Grammer, though, begged to differ: “If you lowered the price, either brother would wear it.” This particular evening he settled for a tweedy blazer, boldly patterned cafe shirt, black jeans and cowboy boots. . . .
Over at Fred Joaillier, real diamonds (to the tune of millions of dollars) were under glass, while cubic zirconias filled Absolut vodka bottles during an exhibition of the 40th Annual Diamonds-International Awards Collection. Everyone knows--or at least we do now--that you can’t put cut diamonds together in a jar without scratching them.
“Only other diamonds cut diamonds,” says the Diamond Information Center’s Cri Cri Solak-Eastin, who modeled Japanese winner Yuko Nakajima’s autumn leaf brooch made of acrylic, platinum and 427 diamonds. Actress Faith Ford wore American designer Janis Savitt’s leather and platinum choker set with five pear-shaped and 66 square-cut diamonds. The award winners used more than 790 carats worth of diamonds, and the event raised thousands of dollars for AIDS Project Los Angeles.
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Cable News Time: Sculptor/jeweler David Yurman stopped by Neiman Marcus last week for a 10-year retrospective of his work and prototypes of his new cable watch collection--or “bracelets that tick,” as he likes to call them. They’re to be worn with his popular cable bracelets.
While in town, the designer--who apprenticed 30 years ago with artist Jacques Lipchitz (whose sculpture tops the Music Center’s plaza fountain)--told of his Angst over moving from fine art into jewelry. “I went to an analyst for five years to get over my fear of setting stones.”
* Inside Out is published Thursdays.
