Arrondissement Hopping
Paris Parties for Hussein Chalayan and Giambattista Valli
Hussein Chalayan: Fashion Narratives opens to the public at Paris' Musée des Arts Décoratifs today. Last night, Betony Vernon, Catherine Baba, sponsor Nadja Swarovski, and the fashion intelligentsia gathered to raise a glass to the avant-garde designer in the museum's Salon des Boiseries. Curator Pamela Golbin has gathered highlights from 18 years of Chalayan's collections. "I feel lucky to be an independent designer having a show here," he said. "The next one is Louis Vuitton; that's like comparing yourself to Bank of America." When Chalayan was told that the exhibition made some in the crowd nostalgic for the days of his big idea productions (wooden coffee-table skirts, robodresses that morphed decades in seconds), he asked, "Do you want to sponsor one?" Interested parties should speak up. After two seasons of video presentations, he said, "I'm thinking of doing a show for Spring."
Over near La Madeleine, Elisa Sednaoui, Margherita and Teresa Missoni, Delfina Delettrez Fendi, and other fashion jet-setters crowded into Caviar Kaspia for a dinner in honor of Giambattista Valli and his first-ever Couture show. "I'm so proud of you," the evening's host, Bianca Brandolini d'Adda, told the designer in Italian, going in for a big kiss. "When I saw the three finale dresses," she continued, "I cried." Valli, for his part, reported, "I feel liberated." He and model Kinga Rajzak both. The coral- and jet-beaded cocktail dress she wore on the catwalk reportedly weighed upward of 20 pounds.
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