Festival of Fashion grows into evening extravaganza
You want to see the most talented area designers? Go to Little Rock Fashion Week or Designers Choice Fashion Preview. You want to see a showcase of what’s available in the area’s swankest and hippest boutiques? Go to Festival of Fashion.
Part of Festival of Trees, the recent multi-day event benefiting the cancer patients served by CARTI, the Festival of Fashion took place Nov. 19 in the Wally Allen Ballroom of the Statehouse Convention Center.
With the fast-paced air of a big-city fashion show and a musical score of Motown hits overlaid with present-day beats, models — which included a few local celebrities — showed off fall and winter fashions from B. Barnett, Barbara/Jean Ltd., Bell & Sward, Beyond Cotton II, Companions, E. Leigh’s, Fletcher & Bensky Furs, Greenhaw’s Fine Men’s Wear, The Independent, Indigo, Monrow Boutique, Roberson’s Fine Jewelry, Proposals Boutique, Scarlet, Steamroller Blues, Tulips and Vesta’s. (Featured designer was Anna Taylor of Judith & James.)
The present-day Festival of Fashion has evolved over the years from what was once a Festival of Trees holiday luncheon and style show for women, says Michaela Johnson, CARTI event planner
and volunteer coordinator. “Five years ago, the CARTI Auxiliary decided to reboot the event, changing it … into a more sophisticated, New York-style runway show with champagne and butler-passed hors d’oeuvres,” she explains. “Reviews were extremely positive, and we began to see an increase in our audience numbers.” Last year, the auxiliary moved it from afternoon to evening. “We could not have anticipated the response” — it’s become a sold-out, standing-room-only event for two years running, she says.
The show — whose projected earnings are $80,000, according to CARTI public relations coordinator Ron Standridge — has certainly made its mark as one of the best ways to shop the city’s wardrobe offerings without burning gas or wearing out one’s feet.
STRIKING OIL
Each January or thereabouts, I profile products for dry, winter skin. Here’s an early entry: Bella Vado Avocado Oil. It comes in the form of the oil itself as well as body products handcrafted at the da Silva family grove in San Diego, using “modern-day technology and Old-World knowledge.” The unfiltered, unrefined California Avocado Oil is a healthful food product also known for its healing and anti-wrinkle properties.
Products, in various scents as well as unscented, include:
Bottled Avocado Oil ($12$13). Like olive oil, it’s thick, lush and just as desirable a skin moisturizer as it is a cooking aid.
Body Lotion ($12). Its scent is vaguely reminiscent of the original Jergens lotion. Absorption is a bit slow; if you’re in a hurry, mix it with the oil.
Avocado Bar ($7). It’s rich in lather and good to a parched body.
Lip Balm ($3), which instantly tames badly chapped lips.
Skin Serum for the body and the hair ($12). Where has this stuff been all my life? Much like that of the plain oil, the serum instantly turns a hopelessly dry, peeling foot into something sandal-ready.
Bella Vado’s California Born & Raised Avocado Oil products are available for purchase at BellaVado.com.
THE PERFECT TOUCH
Did you ever get a pair of those gloves that could be worn while operating your cellphone? No? I didn’t either. Like technology itself, these gloves have evolved.
Case in point: the mainstream-looking Glove.ly gloves for men and women. Available in multiple colors, styles, sizes and fabrics, including leather, cashmere and wool, they feature Invisitouch technology that works with the entire hand, eliminating the need for finger pads or flaps. They also have MagLove Technology: magnets, hidden behind the company’s gloved-peace-sign logo, that keep the gloves together when they are not being worn.
I tried the wool-blend, Solid Winter Touchscreen Gloves, $24.99. These unlined gloves proved quite easy to use with my iPhone. I had less luck with the Cozy Lined Winter Touchscreen Gloves, $29.99, billed as “the perfect winter glove, period.” Their super-thick insulated lining didn’t work so well on a small iPhone 4s screen. But the Cozies are definitely warm.
Glove.ly’s more fashionable offerings include a men’s leather driving glove ($59), men’s and women’s Classic Leather Touch Screen gloves ($89), and a Women’s Leather Rabbit Cuff Touch Screen Glove ($95). Visit glove.ly (no .com needed).
BAG IT UP
Used to settling for shortlived, $25 tote bags from the local off-price store, I find myself in quiet awe of purses such as those made by the Berkeley, Calif.-based Robert Matthew.
The upscale brand is named for lifetime California friends named Robert and Matthew, who were “always intrigued with the connections that women have with their handbags, [and] soon developed a passion to embody style, personality, and the latest trends in creating fashionable purses for all occasions,” according to the company website.
Featured in magazines and on TV shows, and favored by celebrities such as Alicia Silverstone, the bags come in bicast or saffiano leather. I got a look at the Robert Matthew Hailey Tote ($190), a low-key, mid-size zip-top tote of pebbled faux leather, light gold hardware accents, a lock adornment and exterior zippered pocket. It boasts a paisley fabric lining with two smartphone-size open pockets and a zippered pocket. It can be carried by its dual top handles or adjustable, removable shoulder strap. The bag comes in seven colors.
As one who tends to stuff her purses (much to the detriment of the cheap ones), I quickly noticed that I couldn’t expect to load the Hailey up; its opening capability is on the narrow side. But it’s of a substantial weight and its construction is impeccable. Visit Robertmatthew.com.
HEAD CASES
OK, we all know somebody who can rock a hat so well that their headgear is a part of their persona … or they just look so good whenever they decide to put themselves under some headgear, they make memories.
Singer Pharrell Williams, he of the mega-hit “Happy,” has become one of those. (Say what you will about those Smokey Bear brims he sometimes sports.) Rapper-actor L.L. Cool J is another, as are actress Diane Keaton, the late actress Marlene Dietrich, and singers Bruno Mars and Ne- Yo. All of the above are inductees to the Headwear Hall of Fame.
Joining Williams in the 2015 class are fellow “show-bizzers” Tim McGraw, Cara Delevingne, Sir Sean Connery, Joan Collins and Alicia Keyes, The Headwear Association has announced.
“Each year, The Headwear Association recognizes six individuals who are renowned for wearing hats. … We try to select honorees that are known for their signature style, which of course includes wearing a wide variety of hats,” the group’s president, Angus MacLeod, says in a news release. The Headwear Hall of Fame now totals 42 members. Among them: Elton John, Queen Elizabeth II, Cary Grant, Josephine Baker, Carlos Santana, Frank Sinatra, Brad Pitt, Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, Samuel L. Jackson, Johnny Depp, Jackie Kennedy Onassis and Princess Diana. For more information on the Headwear Hall of Fame or to view winners, visit Theheadwearassociation.org or the association’s Facebook page.