Big Names and Wild Blends at Otis Show
Glamorous folkloric gowns, saucy swimwear and even a combination of Cleopatra and ‘80s singer Siouxsie Sioux sashayed down the runway at the Otis College of Art and Design scholarship benefit Saturday.
Nearly 1,000 guests gathered at the Beverly Hilton for the 20th annual fund-raiser for the school founded in 1918. They were treated to the largest Otis fashion show ever, which included the junior and senior fashion design class projects. Fifteen industry experts, including fashion legend Bob Mackie and avant-garde design newcomer Jeremy Scott, mentored the classes through their projects.
Mackie told his students to “create a showstopper,” said fashion design senior Jennifer Hong. Scott urged his students to make one outfit from two different eras, which resulted in such creative blends as punk 16th century queens and 1940s gangster geishas. On Monday, display windows at Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills will feature a selection of the fashion projects.
The event raised $750,000 for Otis students, 78% of whom receive financial aid. The college also granted its Creative Vision awards to Seventeen magazine publisher Linda Platzner, Ocean Pacific chairman and chief executive Richard Baker and Mattel Inc. president for boys/entertainment Matt Bousquette.
Valli Herman-Cohen
Drag Queens, Fashion
and Fund-Raising
Fashion and fund-raising--peppered with drag queen high jinks on the catwalk--merged in the men’s shop at Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills last week. By evening’s end, the Washington, D.C.-based AIDS Action Foundation, an educational and charitable organization, netted $120,000.
“Working with Neiman Marcus is a dream,” said David Wexler, the foundation’s board chairman and an attorney with the Beverly Hills law firm Rosenfeld, Meyer & Susman about the store’s sixth annual dinner, auction and fashion show attended by more than 200 guests. “All I have to do is get people there and Neiman Marcus does everything else.”
The event is one of three conducted annually; the other two are held in Washington and Houston. But the Neiman Marcus show, complete with over-the-top drag queens in waitress outfits and hunky models in everything tight for spring from Dolce & Gabbana to Versace, is the foundation’s biggest draw.
“We had men willing to stand and not have dinner,” said John Martens, Neiman Marcus’ vice president and general manager--and an AIDS Action Foundation board member--about last-minute guests who all were quite nicely escorted to tables. By drag queens, of course.
Michael Quintanilla
Upcoming College
Fashion Shows
El Camino College’s 20th annual spring fashion show will be presented Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in the East Lounge of the Activities Center, 16007 Crenshaw Blvd. in Torrance. Tickets for the show, called “Decked Out,” are $7 ... Long Beach City College’s fashion design department will present its “Roll Out the Red Carpet” show and awards at its 26th annual event May 23. The 7:30 p.m. show will be held at the Long Beach City College Auditorium, 4901 E. Carson St. Tickets are $10.
