Dragon Lady
Glamour design diva Sandra Harvey of Costa Mesa rides the Orient Express into fall with her Suzy Wong collection of brocade vests, mandarin dresses and gowns hand-painted with Chinese motifs. This last category will feature her signature silk charmeuse slips brushed by Andrew Nesselrod, a local artist whom Harvey says took her 10 years to find. “I’ve gone through three other artists, and none of them could put my vision on fabric like Andy,” she says. The intricate delicacy of Nesselrod’s work gives the dresses a quality of vintage couture--falling right in line with Harvey’s ongoing fascination with the sultry and seductive ‘20s. Each one-of-a-kind gown sells for $500. Her Newport Boulevard store will soon have a cousin in New York, when another Sandra Harvey Boutique opens in SoHo later this year, as well as a Dagger, a house fragrance with a sweetly intoxicating but dangerous scent.
Chrome Dome
Clothes and jewelry are not the only things enjoying a sterling year. Hair is getting a silver touch, with a blue-gray tint washing over blondes and brunettes, according to Clay Wilson of the Doyle Wilson Salon on Melrose. Too Leisure World, you say? Or maybe too futuristic? “Our motto is if we wanted it natural we’d leave it alone,” says Wilson, one of Los Angeles’ top colorists and the ’93 North American hairstylist of the year. Consider the modernity of a short cut with the silverish tint. These flatter, metallic shades work better with this season’s bright and silver fashions, says Wilson, versus hair colored with warmer oranges, reds or browns, which can compete and clash. It also works better with the “hardware” trend, adds Wilson. Hardware refers to the metal barrettes and hair clips, as well as the more severe shapes, once again in style.
Heaven Scent
As if he didn’t have enough to do designing for Fendi, Chloe, Chanel and his signature collection of clothes, Karl Lagerfeld reaches for the heavens with the addition of Sun Moon Stars to his fragrance collection. It’s the fourth for the Kaiser of couture, who introduced his first, Chloe, in 1975. A voluptuous bouquet of notes includes living peach, mandarin, waterlily, white cloud rose, heliotrope, jasmine, sandalwood, amber and musk, among others. The frosted, moonlight blue bottle is covered by the sun, moon and stars and crowned by a gold stopper. The line ranges from $200 for one ounce of parfum to $37 for 1.7 ounces of eau de toilette spray to $25 for the perfumed bath gel. The reel stars enlisted for the ethereal, fairy-tale print and TV campaign: actress Daryl Hannah, fashion photographer Peter Lindbergh and film director David Lynch--all characterized in one way or another as other-than-of-this-Earth. Inquiring noses will have to wait until early September, when the line hits perfume counters.
