Just Add Water: Seeing Green at These Spring Shows

The grass is always greener at--would you believe?--Holland & Holland, the British firm with a hunting heritage.

Shoppers at its Beverly Hills outpost may kick off their shoes if they are so inclined and sink their tootsies into a carpet of lush green grass covering a 1,000-square-foot showroom on the store’s second floor at 442 N. Rodeo Drive.

The grass was planted on plastic over a hardwood floor last week for a series of shows highlighting H&H;’s spring 2000 collection by Paris designer Jose Levy.

The willow green collection of organza kilts and cashmere tops for evening also called for a wall-to-wall lawn that will be mowed away after the close of business Saturday.

Levy, who uses a snappy grass print for several garments, used Astroturf on the catwalk in London during the spring shows, and put a real grass runway in the New York store. But leave it to H&H; on Rodeo Drive to go Hollywood.

“We just decided to go all out with wall-to-wall grass,” said store manager William Aspinall, who’s been watering twice a day with Miracle-Gro. The flora is doing so well that even the fauna are starting to appear: “The other day” he said, “a worm was climbing up the wall.”

Soap Stars: Fashion and Hollywood have long been partners, but now it looks as if the beauty industry wants a piece of the action. These days, movie premiere-goers are likely to walk out with a bag of goodies that includes shampoo and skin products. Guests at the premiere of “Happy, Texas” got a big bottle of Kiehl’s body wash. “The Story of Us” and “The Thomas Crown Affair”--great hair movies--offered Terax Hair Care products. And Clinique has developed a makeup promotion for the soon-to-be-released “Anywhere but Here.” Makeup artists at Clinique counters will give customers the looks used by the movie’s mother (Susan Sarandon) or daughter (Natalie Portman).

Virtual Neiman’s: What’s next in the dot-com world? Just in time for holiday shopping comes the e-commerce site from department store Neiman Marcus--https://www.neimanmarcus.com--open for shopping as of last week. Neiman’s has had a Web site since 1996, but customers could only e-mail their requests.

Puffy Wear: Music producer and celebrity party host Sean “Puffy” Combs expects to launch a women’s wear line in fall 2000, according to the November issue of W. Combs has a line of men’s urban streetwear--Sean Jean.

Makeup Tips: Makeup artist Laura Mercier, famous for celebrity client Madonna, has added skin care to her self-named cosmetics line. She’ll be at Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday.