Stylish scent wafts through South Coast Plaza

Andrew Glazer

COSTA MESA -- A sartorial superhero flanked by two supermodels swooped

into this fashion mecca Friday, allowing Orange County noses the first

whiff of her new fragrance.

“I love it here,” said Donna Karan, chairman and chief designer of DKNY,

who appropriately wore a red leather DKNY men’s jacket.

She moved conspiratorially closer. “Actually, I haven’t seen Costa Mesa

yet. I guess that’s where we are, huh?”

The world’s best-looking couple, Esther Canadas -- you know, the one with

lips that look like two Goodyear blimps ready for liftoff -- and husband

Mark Vanderloo, joined Karan at South Coast Plaza to help promote DKNY

Women.

The perfume is citrus-like and spicy, with vodka and cilantro smells.

“We’re planning on making a DKNY martini next,” Karan quipped.

A half-hour before the event, more than 20 fashion fans were lined up,

waiting for the two models and Karan to sign their new, skyscraper-shaped

perfume bottles and DKNY Barbie dolls.

Canadas and Vanderloo sat in a well-lit dressing room, talking to

reporters while cradling their 4-year-old -- Chalupa, a black-and-white

spotted Chihuahua.

Why did DKNY decide on Costa Mesa to uncork the crystalline bottles for

the first time?

“Costa Mesa. Is that the county we’re in?” asked the chisel-cheeked

Vanderloo, clad in a form-fitting DKNY T-shirt and DKNY bluejeans. His

wife was wearing a powder blue DKNY sweater and DKNY bluejeans. The DKNY

duo met, appropriately, on a DKNY photo shoot.

“Mark and Esther are two people passionately in love,” said Karan.

The designer said she tried to bottle the energy of New York for her

fragrance.

“What has more energy than that? This is the real thing,” she said.

A press kit described the DKNY fragrance as “the perfect prequel to a

night out in Soho, an art gallery opening in Chelsea, a concert in

Central Park.”

Karan said the perfume would work for anyone -- male, female, New Yorker.

Even Costa Mesan.

“Fragrance is a universal language,” she said. “It is an ageless,

tireless state of mind.”

But Karan’s decision to unveil the new scent in Costa Mesa still

confounded some of her loyal followers.

“I find it a bit odd,” said Jimmy Lucero, 21, a fashion student from

Laguna Beach who waited in line for 45 minutes for her autograph. “I

would’ve thought it would have been Italy or Paris.”