Take It From a Trump, Turner’s ‘Tough’
At this week’s fall ’91 menswear shows at New York’s Plaza Hotel, Ivana Trump sat front-row center. Like everyone else, she found on her chair the current issue of Esquire, sponsor of the show, with its cover story about Jane Fonda and Ted Turner. “I wouldn’t want to be with him,” the ex-Mrs. Donald Trump told Listen. “He’s tough.”
* TROUBLE IN PARADISE: It seems that even the ladies who lunch are tightening their budgets. Susan Roth, a wardrobe consultant whose Los Angeles-based company, Trims Unlimited, shops for women with big bucks, has noticed a decline in spending. Those who usually spend $5,000 annually are dropping off her roster. And those who spend $10,000 or more are buying less. They complain that European fashion prices are too high. They won’t buy trendy pieces, and the only things they splurge on are basics, Roth says. She attributes the downturn to, among other things, the mercurial stock market and peer pressure to leave behind the excesses of the ‘80s. Although most of her clients have not been hurt by the recession, Roth says, “They just don’t feel like buying. It doesn’t mean they are less liquid, but they are more threatened.”
* DOING HIS PART: Allen Edwards, owner of the six hair salons bearing his name in Los Angeles and Orange counties, has found a way to help the war effort. He is offering free haircuts and make-overs to wives of servicemen. On Feb. 11, he’ll take 25 hairdressers and six makeup artists to Point Mugu Naval Air Station. On Feb. 25, the wives of Long Beach-based sailors will be treated. “We’re also going to take their photos so they can send them to their husbands,” Edwards says.
* SIGN OF THE TIMES: War is having an effect on the bridal business. Wedding gown manufacturers nationwide have seen an increase in rush orders as brides and grooms move up wedding dates in anticipation that one or both could ship out to the Persian Gulf. Country Elegance bridal designer Susan Lane has designed three dresses for such brides. Each includes a yellow ribbon, a symbol of support and homecoming.
* QUEEN’S COSTUME PARTY: It looked like a tour group from the Twilght Zone earlier this week when 500 native New Yorkers gathered at the Cineplex theater on Fairfax Avenue dressed in any old thing that said Queens: high-school letter jackets, old Dodgers jackets, Mets jackets. They are from the Queens branch of the local New York Alumni Assn., and they were special guests at a preview screening of “Queens Logic,” about a group of friends who return to their old neighborhood. The film opens today. .
* TRAVELING BY TWOS: Michael Cromer, owner of the Munich-based luggage company MCM, brought Miss Germany, Leticia Koffke, a 19-year-old nurse, to a reception at his Rodeo Drive MCM store Thursday. She is also the company’s new spokeswoman; the only catch is that she can barely speak English. Cromer interprets. They are on the last leg of a “worldwide tour.” Since the reunification of Germany, Cromer has been proudly presenting Koffke as a symbol of the new Germany, his spokesman says.
