Party Wraps

Let the rest of the country’s society mavens be fashion victims--women who only wear trendy rags when they paint the town. (Fear of sartorial showdowns, you know.)

Orange County’s fashion pacesetters are going for fashion deja vu.

Take developer Kathryn Thompson. The chairwoman of “Starlight Expressions”--the Sept. 25 launch of the Performing Art Center’s fifth-anniversary galas--will sport a glitter gown she has worn before.

So will theater-arts spark plug Olivia Johnson on Sept. 14 when, in a Chanel clinger, she sweeps into the soiree that kicks off South Coast Repertory’s 28th season.

“I chose the Chanel for two reasons,” Johnson says. “First, I could get into it. Second, our theme is ‘The Magic of Theatre,’ and I can’t think of anything more magical than black velvet with burnished gold.”

Johnson’s creation was purchased several years ago on sale , she emphasizes. “That’s the way I buy most of my gowns,” she says. “Why not?”

Why not, indeed. In European society circles--universally speaking, the only circles worth thinking about--women relish the chance to pay a reasonable price for something of high quality. Or, better yet, they’ll have a seamstress whip up a creation they can wear, change a little, and wear again.

Like the cobalt-blue frock Carol Wilken will sport at “Starlight Expressions.” “These epaulets can be removed to give this gown a streamlined look,” Wilken says of the sequin-shot appliques that accent the dress’s shoulders.

“My way of gala dressing is to find things I can wear and recycle,” says Wilken, chairwoman of the Center’s birthday party on Sept. 29. “You don’t have to wear brand-new to be happy. My No. 1 requirement for a gown is comfort.”

Ditto for Janice Johnson, co-chairman with Fluor chief Les McCraw of the Center’s fifth-anniversary festivities. “I’ll never forget the night I wore a beautiful but miserably uncomfortable gown,” Johnson says. “I may have looked good, but I thought I’d die. Never again.”

Even though Johnson already has a few glamour gowns, she bought a new number for “Starlight Expressions”--the $2,500-per-person bash everyone agrees is the centerpiece of the social season.

But Johnson had good reason for purchasing a bead-smothered creation by Stephen Yearick. The New York designer’s evening dresses will be featured at the “Center of Fashion” benefit at Segerstrom Hall on Sept. 20, an extravaganza that the arts-loving Johnson launched last year.

For the past 16 years, Yearick has designed figure-hugging stunners for the Miss America pageant. “Yearick really knows how to flatter a woman,” Johnson says, smiling. “Maybe I’ll feel like Miss America--an old one! It’s a gown I plan to wear again and again.”

Both Shari Esayian and Randi Larsen will wear theater suits when they participate in the Center’s fifth-anniversary celebrations.

Esayian, chairwoman of the Center of Fashion--staged by the Guilds of the Orange County Performing Arts Center--had her teal green and gold silk ensemble custom tailored at Stracci in Newport Beach. Larsen bought her smart-looking rhinestone and jet-flecked suit off the rack.

Since Esayian will be attending two events on the same day--the Center of Fashion has a matinee and evening presentation--she chose to have four pieces created: a fitted green silk jacket with matching skirt and a flirty gold lame skirt with matching blouse.

For daytime, Esayian will wear the green elements with the gold blouse. For evening, she’ll wear the gold elements with the green jacket. “I wanted a cocktail suit that could take me from day to night,” Esayian says.

Will she wear a hat for daytime? “ No ,” Esayian says with a shudder. “We discourage hats for theater.” (They obstruct the view.)

Larsen will also need to juggle ensembles when she is featured on Sept. 28 in a Segerstrom Hall concert and then helps chair the post-concert supper at the new Plaza Tower in Costa Mesa.

She will perform in a chorus robe and then party in her cocktail suit. “For the supper, I chose a black suit with a smack of glitz because I wanted to look sleek and futuristic,” Larsen says. “Our party will be held in the only all-steel building in California. How futuristic can you get?”

Larsen is especially proud to be overseeing the post-concert party, she says. “It’s the only fifth-anniversary event that will be reminiscent of the gala that opened the Center.

“We’ll have beautiful food stations, ice carvings and steaming Viennese coffees.

“Can you believe its been five years?”

Well, sort of.