She Granted the Bride’s Simple Wish
Videographers hovering over the wedding of Brooke Shields and Andre Agassi last weekend didn’t need zoom lenses to capture the detailing on the bride’s gown. She chose an ivory drop-waisted dress with no jewels, beads or pearls.
“The beauty of it was the lack of embellishment,” said Heidi Weisel, who created the gowns for Shields and her three attendants.
Made of double-faced duchess satin and lined in silk satin, the sleeveless gown with a low, square neckline was designed around a traditional corset. What looked like a train was actually a trailing vintage veil worn only for the ceremony.
“Brooke started with the idea of a boned corset, and we took it from there. The complexity was all in the structure and the shape,” Weisel said. “It was very fitted, the armhole was carefully sculpted, and all the seams were beautifully self-piped. But it appeared very modern and breathtaking. I think it will set a trend toward simplicity and elegance.”
New York-based Weisel has been designing understated cocktail and evening clothes for six years. She began producing a small bridal collection, priced from $5,000 to $9,000 only at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City, after women kept requesting that gowns from her regular line be made in ivory. The bronze satin dresses worn by Shield’s bridesmaids were from Weisel’s evening collection. “We just made them in a special color,” the designer said.
Barneys New York, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale’s and Ron Ross all carry Weisel’s designs, which cost from $1,000 to $4,000. Patti Ross, owner of the Studio City boutique, will host a Weisel trunk show May 6 and 7, something she does twice a year.
“We’ve sold some of her dresses to bridesmaids,” Ross said. “As fashion has gotten clean and simple, bridal has also moved in that direction. Heidi understands a woman’s body. Her clothes appeal to a wide range of ages and the fit is incredible.”
Is It Memorex?: Elycia Rubin admits to a mild fetish for handbags. So when she saw a black nylon bag with a double bamboo handle at Banana Republic that was the spitting image of one a friend had bought at Gucci, she had to have it.
“It was only $48, so I thought it would be a great knock-around bag,” said Rubin, fashion talent executive for the E! Entertainment Channel. “If I’m carrying one of my real Gucci bags and it gets a scratch on it, I have a heart attack. This one is made really nicely, and at that price, if it gets a little screwed up, I’m not going to care.”
Rubin wasn’t the only savvy shopper eager to snap up a reasonably priced facsimile of a designer original. Friday, at the Beverly Center Banana Republic store, the black nylon purses were sold out (brown was available), and harried salespeople had started a waiting list for the shipment due Monday.
Consumers like Rubin love the cheap thrill a discovery like the Gucci pretender provides. But Banana Republic representatives profess not to be in on the joke. “Oh, is there a Gucci bag that looks like that?” Beverly Butler, a Banana Republic public relations person, asked when the similarity was pointed out. “Gosh. That really surprises me, because we don’t copy. We lead, we don’t follow.”
Gucci, however, has noticed the resemblance.
“We’re selling that style this season in leather [$575] and nylon [$485],” company representative Lisa Schiek said. “We’re considering legal action, but a decision on how we’ll proceed hasn’t yet been made.”
The Banana Republic version so strongly resembles the Gucci that Rubin has been tempted to hide its true origins. “Everyone sees it and says, ‘Another Gucci?’ I almost don’t want to tell people what it really is because then everyone and their mother will be carrying it.”
