Does it get any more fashionable than this?
A color-soaked living room with a pair of hooded pink chairs, coral and taupe velvet couches, seashell-shaped planters, a zebra rug and Chinoiserie screen could mean only one thing: Kelly Wearstler.
If you don’t know the name, you know the look. She’s the interior design darling who put a modern spin on the Hollywood Regency style and took that glamour over the top at hip hotels from L.A. (the Avalon and Maison 140) to Palm Springs (the Viceroy) to New York (the new BG restaurant at Bergdorf Goodman).
But this project is personal. It’s her home, Hillcrest Estate in Beverly Hills, which she opened to guests Thursday afternoon, for a celebrity-studded tea party in honor of New York fashion designer Derek Lam and his new collection for Tod’s.
“This is like a modern day [Tony] Duquette house,” said stylist Jessica Paster, walking in with actress Kate Bosworth, the first in a long line of Hollywood hotties to arrive.
“Can I put my coat down?” one guest wondered. “Or am I going to ruin the visual effect?”
It’s true, the place did feel a bit precious, more like one of Wearstler’s hotels than a place to live with your husband, hotelier Brad Korzen, and two sons. Turns out Hillcrest Estate is also the subject of Wearstler’s lavish new book “Domicilium Decoratus,” $100 of hard-bound color photos of the home, and of Wearstler tending to various domestic duties -- washing the windows, watering the lawn, reading to the kids -- while wearing a stunning array of evening gowns (Rochas, vintage Dior, Carolina Herrera, and so on). Nice life.
Yet, just as “Domicilium Decoratus” is hitting bookstores, Wearstler and Korzen have put the house up for sale. They’ve bought James Bond producer Albert Broccoli’s place up the street, she explains, an eight-bedroom estate built by William Powell. And it’s a keeper.
“My husband says we are going to die there,” said Wearstler. “Isn’t that romantic?”
Lam was smitten with Wearstler and her style from the first time they met about a year ago. After she finished work on BG in New York, he asked her to host a trunk show there for his eponymous line. They became fast friends. “People ask me what celebrity inspires me,” Lam said. “But it’s not a celebrity. It’s Kelly, because she’s genuine and talented and beautiful.”
Wearstler loves wearing Lam’s clothes. For the tea, she paired his brilliant purple coat with black leggings, a striped belt, and a cube of a black onyx ring by L.A. jeweler Lena Wald. But she also loves sending him fashion finds she runs across in her scouting expeditions.
“She sent me a vintage cape that ended up inspiring some of the capes in my fall collection,” Lam said.
But the occasion of this party isn’t Lam’s own line, but his clothing designs for Tod’s, the Italian leather-goods company that made its name on the pebble-soled driving moccasin. In stores now, the collection includes luscious cashmere polo shirts with whimsical oversized buttons, the perfect trench coat with a bright orange lining, sporty windbreakers, featherweight tie-front leather jackets, embroidered leather skirts, and classic denim trousers. Prices range from $245 to $3,100.
Lam grew up in San Francisco, graduated from Parsons School of Design in New York and worked for Michael Kors before launching his own company in 2003. He remembers meeting Tod’s Chief Executive Diego Della Valle in Italy last year.
“I went to the meeting asking myself why Tod’s would want to get into clothing.” He came out inspired by the company’s leader, whom he compares to a Hollywood mogul. Lam created a proposal for the line based on the Marlin, John F. Kennedy’s 52-foot cruiser which Della Valle bought at auction.
“I didn’t want to be looking at old style luxury, at the equestrian life, for example,” Lam said. “It had to be contemporary. So I created 10 great travel pieces, to take you from New York to the Hamptons, from Milan to Portofino, from Paris to San Tropez.” And from Beverly Hills to Catalina, perhaps.
Della Valle’s private plane is like living in a Tod’s handbag, Lam said. “It’s plush and the leather is soft. He’s the most generous and glamorous person. So there is a lifestyle brand that can be developed here.” Lam has a 3 1/2 -year contract.
At the tea party, models meandered among the guests -- Jessica Alba, Amber Valletta, Joy Bryant, Camilla Belle -- drinking ice tea, getting their pictures taken and chirping about the cute clothes.
“The OC” star Mischa Barton and Shiva Rose shopped for clothing and bags in the library, where shelves were stacked with issues of Vogue, Palm Springs Life and Town and Country from the 1950s to the 1970s. Kumquat iced tea was served, along with potato cakes with caviar, chicken salad cups and peanut-butter-and-chocolate Kisses.
“We use a lot of Tod’s on the show,” said Barton, wearing a green Mayle sundress and Dolce & Gabbana woven flats. “The label is a classic.”
Barton also had Bebe on the mind, having just been named the face of the L.A. contemporary label. “They are working really hard to turn the collection into something edgier,” she said.
But don’t expect her to walk the runway when Bebe shows at L.A. Fashion Week on March 22. “I did it once for a charity fashion show and I was mortified. It makes me more nervous than theater, than anything, because if you drop a line you ad-lib but if you trip, well, that’s it.”
Kelly Lynch was sporting the season’s high ponytail, along with a denim miniskirt, cream cashmere cable knit sweater and Tod’s green leather wedge sandals. While taking in the Wearstler aesthetic, Lynch said she was developing a design-themed television show with Graydon Carter that will cover fashion and home.
“I feel like Americans have lost their sense of style,” Lynch said. “It used to be when you’d go out, you would dress in your best suit. Now it’s tracksuits.” The show will incorporate the high-end, but also teach how to get a similar look for less. (Lynch and her husband, screenwriter Mitch Glazer, live in John Lautner’s 1950 Harvey house in the Hollywood Hills.)
A longtime fan of Tod’s, Lynch gave the new Lam line her stamp of approval because it has things both she and her mother can wear. “From this first collection, I’m buying one of each.”
