From Coast to Coast, Everyone’s a Culture Critic
The message reads, “Just because you live in L.A. it doesn’t mean you have to dress that way.” And it comes straight from the New York specialty store, Charivari, which unleashes its opinion today in a contentious billboard at Sunset and Selma. “We did it because American Express told us we have more customers from L.A. than from Long Island,” explains Barbara Weiser, who owns the six-store chain with her mother, Selma, and brother Jon. The Weiser family doesn’t get to Los Angeles very often and has no plans to open a shop here. Still, Jon believes he has a pretty good fix on the dress style: “Stereotypically, Venice Beach with big hair, roller skates and Bermuda shorts.” Lest you think the Weisers worry that they’ll turn off their Los Angeles customers, think again. “Everyone will think we’re talking about someone else,” says Barbara.
* COMIC ON CALL: Sandra Bernhard has joined Cheryl Tiegs, Christie Brinkley and Jerry Hall in the Special Bookings division of the Ford Agency in New York. She’s already posed for fashion layouts and done runway stints for Isaac Mizrahi, among others. Now she’s available for more of the same, confirms Ivan Bart of Ford. “Sandra is the look for the ‘90s--toned and extraordinarily physical,” he says. Bart won’t reveal Bernhard’s day rate but says she commands the same kind of fee as “a Christy Turlington, or any of our top models.”
* BEAN DIPPING: We hear Cher and Andie MacDowell are hooked on Jean Laporte’s Vanilla eau de toilette. Tracey Ross, who sells a 3.33-ounce bottle for $80 at her Los Angeles boutique on Robertson Boulevard, says the actresses are equally keen on Laporte’s $70 vanilla candles. Although the fragrance--a blend of vanilla flowers and beans--has been around for a while, Ross says, “It’s gotten trendy this last year. It’s a very sexy, sensual scent. Guys go wild over it.” Personally, we’ve always found chocolate more exciting.
* VIEW FROM THE NORTH: John Gibson and Philip Palermo, the San Francisco-based design team, just might take the cake for the luxurious, understated Chantilly lace wedding suit they designed for Wendy Paskin for her wedding to S. F. Mayor Frank Jordan this month. Palermo, in Los Angeles on business, described the outfit and made a few observations about his Southland clients: “There are two types of Beverly Hills customers. One wants to wow her friends, the other wants a clean, modern look. Pasadena customers are less decorative, more understated.” * JACK OF ALL TRADES: There’s more up John Weitz’s sleeve than dress shirts, raincoats, suits and socks. The menswear designer is also an author. Weitz was at the Hotel Bel-Air this week promoting his new book, “Hitler’s Diplomat: The Life and Times of Joachim von Ribbentrop,” based on Weitz’s firsthand knowledge of Hitler’s foreign minister. The designer was born in Berlin, fled the Nazis in 1938, and later became an American officer and spy.
* FASHION BYTES: One scene in the movie “Single White Female” has lead character Bridget Fonda, a computer programmer, showing a fashion manufacturer how a computer turns a sketch into a three-dimensional image. The technology was developed by L.A.-based ModaCad, a computer software firm whose $12,000 programs are used by Speedo, Guess, Maui & Sons and Ocean Pacific. “The director (Babette Schroeder) saw an article on us in the L.A. Times and told us it was just the hook the film needed,” says Marketing Director Linda Freedman. She didn’t expect the film to be such a hit: “We really thought it was just going to be some B movie about the fashion business.”
