McCartney Orchestrates Applause for Designer Daughter
Half the fun of fashion shows is scanning the front row for famous faces. One of music’s legends, former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney--still baby-faced--turned up last week to cheer his designer daughter Stella at Chloe.
Sitting next to actresses Liv Tyler and Debi Mazar on one side and singer Chrissie Hynde on the other, the proud papa applauded every garment and at show’s end gave his daughter a standing ovation as she blew him a kiss.
“Stella’s work just gets better and better and better,” McCartney said in an interview after the show, before he was whisked away by bodyguards. “The collection is fantastic, beautifully made, feminine and has such style. I try to make all her shows.
“And I also give her so much advice but she never takes it,” he said. “I always suggest outfits but she doesn’t do [them]. She’s got a mind of her own.”
And in her own right, he added, Stella also is a bit of a musician. “She makes music with her clothes.”
Frock ‘n’ roll.
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Mazar, who was in Paris vacationing, also found time to stay abreast of the latest trends. After the Chloe show and before Jean-Paul Gaultier’s on the same day, she was custom fitted for brassieres.
“I like my bust pointy,” she confessed, while sitting ringside at the Gaultier show, about her 34-B fitting. “Really, I had a bullet bra appointment at a shop with Madame Poopie--wait, it’s spelled P-o-u-p-i-e--a designer.
“In America, I can’t find such nice-fitting bras. It’s really wonderful to do that here. I felt like a woman,” she said about the uplifting experience. “Madame Poupie knows just where to put the darts.”
The next day, Mazar was front row at the Chanel show, sitting next to actor Gerard Depardieu, who couldn’t help but give her the once-over before she . . . well . . . darted out the door.
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At the signature collection for John Galliano, rapper Jay-Z sat front and center, surrounded by eight bodyguards and nearly oblivious to the paparazzi who were more interested in taking photos of French celebs.
“Who eez zis rapper?” asked a Paris-based photographer. “I only take photos of rappers weez ‘Puffy’ in zee name.”
At the same show, British model Stella Tennant stunned guests when she made an obscene gesture as she approached photographers and mouthed what appeared to be an F-word--and we’re not spelling F-a-s-h-i-o-n here, folks.
We can only figure that it was all an act. Backstage, a giant poster--called an inspiration board in the business--was decorated in the shape of a skull with a message to rev up the models for the show. Galliano instructed his models to pretend to be urban pirates as they romped on the runway. Read his board:
“Own the runway!!! Take no prisoners. Slaughter any pirate [rhymes with witch] that tries to get in your way. Remain fierce and strong, savagely sexy.”
Thus, Tennant’s temporary tenet.
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Van Cleef & Arpels, look out. You too, Harry Winston.
Collaborating with scientists at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, Thierry Holemans, a third-generation Belgian jewelry designer, has created what he calls “living jewels”--a $3 million necklace set in platinum loaded with 3,987 diamonds. Three flowers open and close, triggered by changes in the body temperature of the wearer or the environment. Hidden alloys trigger the magic--the petals open when it is hot, close when cold.
The one-of-a-kind piece--in the works for five years--was unveiled last week at the Parisian palace of Belgium’s ambassador to France, Alain Rens, with Holemans and his scientific squad on hand.
Now Holemans has his eyes set on Hollywood’s red carpet. “Do you think Julia Roberts would wear this?” he asked. “It would go well with her dazzling smile.”
And she is about as hot as hot can get.
