Eat, Drink and Dress Armani
Start saving those pennies, nickels and dimes. An Emporio Armani is scheduled to open in South Coast Plaza in September. The store will carry Italian designer Giorgio Armani’s lower-priced lines for men and women. (Prices for a man’s Emporio Armani jacket range from $600 to $650, compared to $1,200 and up for those sold in the Giorgio Armani boutique in Beverly Hills.) In addition, very casual weekend wear, bathing suits and lingerie, items that are never found in the Rodeo Drive shop, are part of the Emporio collection. The store will also contain Armani’s home accessories and an Emporio Express restaurant and coffee bar. * SOMETHING UP HIS SLEEVE: Next time you see Gov. Pete Wilson, check out his shirt sleeves. He might be wearing cuff links made with official seal-of-California buttons. Wife Gayle wears the same buttons--on her ears. That’s what we hear from Susan Forte, designer for S. Garland Designs, whose button jewelry--including the $15 cuff links--is available at Cleavage, on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica.
* SALUTE DRESSING: In “Welcome Home America!,” ABC’s Sunday salute to the military, there is a lot of patriotic dressing. We’re told Brooke Shields wears a red-and-white outfit, while Arnold Schwarzenegger combines a royal suit with a navy-and-red polka-dotted tie. Our spy is Sherman Oaks retailer Rick Pallack, who was backstage during the taping. He made sure actors Alan Thicke and Tony Danza, singer Tony Orlando and record composer and producer David Foster looked perfect in wardrobes from Pallack’s store. Foster was the only one who didn’t. He insisted on wearing white tennis shoes with a suit. “And they will show,” Pallack says with a groan.
* HOMEMADE: Demand has been so strong for Barry Wells’ comically printed fabrics that the Dallas-based tie designer has started a home-furnishings division. The first products are overstuffed pillows, which feature whimsically printed silk fabrics: a cow pattern called “Haute Cowture”; a stars-and-stripes print labeled “Knot a John Philip Sousa,” and a floral/ clock motif titled “Time Petals On.” They are priced at $50 and will be available in the fall. “Hopefully, they’ll become collector’s items, like a lot of the ties,” Wells says, adding that cotton and silk sheets are next in the offing.
* DESIGNER DOG LIFE: Victor Costa, the dress designer known for his lower-priced couture knockoffs, has a new passion these days: a St. Charles Spaniel named D’or (not to be confused with Christian Dior, for whom Costa designs dresses for the American market). But his is no ordinary hound, Costa says. As the grandchild of spaniels owned by Pat Buckley and former First Lady Nancy Reagan, D’or was destined to lead a pampered existence. The dog rests its head in a miniature antique Louis XIV four-poster bed bought in Paris.
