Hi Fashionistas,

My son, Dallas, recently said to me, "Mom, I don't get all gaga when I meet famous people."  It must be great to be so blasé.  I, on the other hand, am not, and have spent the last month in a perpetual state of "gaga-ness".   

Hamish Bowles, European Editor at Large for Vogue and Editor in Chief of Vogue Living, came to town to give a lecture on collecting couture clothing (one of his passions) at the Meadows Museum, and be the guest of honor at a fund-raiser for The Fashionistas.  Myra Walker picked him up at the airport and whisked him down to the Mansion on Turtle Creek for an intimate lunch with Joyce Goss and myself.  I was a little nervous about meeting him because I figured he would be a bit pompous and arrogant, but nothing could have been further from the truth.  He was absolutely charming and lovely and easy to talk to and I had a great time getting all the scoop on the Costume Institute's Party of the Year.  After lunch, he went back to his room to freshen up and then off the Meadows Museum for his talk.  It was a full house and the somewhat aggressive museum staff had to turn away over 50 people.  The lecture started at 5:30 and people were lining up before 4:30!  The party, sponsored by Paper City, Cymbidium, GREY GOOSE and Stanley Korshak, was scheduled to start at 7:00.  Hamish was suffering from allergies, so he stopped at a drug store on his way to stock up on Claritin and arrived at Korshak fashionably late and was immediately accosted by our local paparazzi.  Around 200 people packed into Korshak to meet Hamish, listen to the music by Shanghai 5, and to taste our signature cocktail, the GREY GOOSE Fashiontini.  The next day, Rob Brinkley of Paper City, gave Hamish a tour of some of our architecturally significant homes.  That evening Joyce Goss hosted a very chic dinner party for him at the home of Kenny Goss and George Michael.  After dinner, Doss Alexander took him out to some of our more colorful establishments.




When you receive an invitation from Harold Koda, Curator in Charge at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, to come to a private tour of the Paul Poiret exhibition and to meet Nicholas Ghesquiere, Creative Director of Balenciaga, you do whatever you can to make it happen.  I immediately made my plane and hotel reservations and pulled Dallas (a fashion aficionado) out of school.  We arrived at our hotel in New York in just enough time to get ready and run up to the Met.  Myra, who was in town with 20 of her fashion design students, met us at our hotel.  Harold, who is the curator of the show along with Andrew Bolton, gave the tour to about 20-30 people who are members of the very exclusive Friends of the Costume Institute.  It's exclusive because it costs $7,000 a year to be a member.  Most of the pieces in the exhibition belonged to Poiret's wife, Denise, and could easily be worn today.  After the tour, we went into another gallery for cocktails and met Nicholas.  There were some Balenciaga pieces on display especially for this event, and Harold and Nicholas discussed the possibility that Paul Poiret influenced Cristobal Balenciaga.  Myra, Dallas and I had a chance to chat with Nicholas who was cute and shy.  They had given him a glass of champagne to loosen him up a bit, because he's not know for being a big talker. 




My very first true love in the fifth grade was Paul McCartney.  I saw the Beatles play when I was in the sixth grade in Minneapolis and cried through they entire concert.  Paul's oldest daughter, Mary McCartney, was recently in town for the first U.S. showing of her photography at Goss Gallery.  While, fortunately, I didn't cry when I met her, I couldn't help but stare into her eyes, which are exactly, like her father's.  I have admired Mary's work for some time, particularly the series of Kate Moss wearing Stella McCartney pieces, but now that I have met Mary, I like her work even more.  After the packed opening at Goss, I hosted a dinner party at my house for Mary and her boyfriend Simon.  They both hung out and chatted like we were all old friends.  Mary has two young boys and is a life-long vegetarian.  Apparently her parents were very strict with the kids - they all went to public schools and had to earn their own money to buy their cars.  Whatever Paul and Linda did, it worked.  




You can read more about these events at www.pinkmemo.com

My friend Neva Linder from Wardrobe NYC came to town with a stack of her designer duds that she rents out to celebrities and socialites for a fraction of the retail price.  Everyone came over to my house to meet Neva and try on her Lacroix's, Herrera's, and a vintage Versace’s.  Next time you have a gala or cocktail party to attend and you don't want to spend thousands for a dress just for one evening - call Neva.  www.wardrobenyc.com.  Neva hung out in Dallas for a few days and joined us at Art Ball, looking fabulous in a black Lacroix evening gown.

OUR MISSION
The Fashionistas Inc. is a non-profit organization whose mission is to support the Texas Fashion Collection and its exhibition space, Fashion on Main, by raising funds for exhibitions, acquisitions and educational programs.  The Texas Fashion Collection is part of the School of Visual arts at the University of North Texas at Denton.