“I have a saying–It’s chic to repeat,” said Jean Shafiroff as she addressed the crowd at the Michael Kors store at 790 Madison Avenue last night. As the “Humanitarian with Heart” honoree at the upcoming 20th Anniversary Hamptons Heart Ball (June 25) to benefit the American Heart Association, as well as a sponsor of this and many other worthy causes, Jean is known as much for looking good as for doing good.
“If you invest in one of his dresses I’m sure that Michael Kors wouldn’t want you to only wear it once” she explained while encouraging everyone to shop that from now until May 30, in this store only, 20% of all proceeds will be donated if you mention the AHA.
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| The scene |
Jean also recounted the story of how her recently deceased father lived until the age of 94 even though he had suffered a heart attack when he was quite young. Crediting the great medical care that he received at St. Francis Hospital on Long Island as well as his dedication to a strict but healthy diet, Jean told how her father was able to enjoy a long, full life.
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| Jean Shafiroff, Andrea Warshaw Wernick, Nicole Noonan, Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin, Randi Schatz |
The Hamptons Heart Ball will be held at Hayground School in Bridgehampton. Dr. Frank Spencer, Professor of Surgery at NYUL Medical Center will be the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award. Chief Weather Caster Lonnie Quinn of CBS-TV news will serve as emcee. Now that she had gotten all that out of the way, Ms. Jean went into the dressing room to change from the MK dress she rode in on — complete with matching leather elbow length gloves — to another special MK dress: one that she had donned with Colin Firth during an event for “The Kings Speech.” She thanked Michael Kors and admitted that the dress had photographed very well.
“I’ll never wash this since Colin Firth touched it,” she remarked coquettishly. Then she posed on the stairs, first alone and then with the events co-chairs Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin, Nicole Noonan, Randi Schatz and Tracy Stern who also changed from a long navy dress with midriff baring cutouts and metal rings to a amazing metallic Kors jumpsuit.
The room soon filled with the usual suspects including R. Couri Hay, Adele Nino, Rosemary Ponzo, Lucia Hwong Gordon, Chiu-Ti Jansen, Montgomery Frazier, Ben Mindich and many others. Photos were taken early and often. Each time another individual joined the party it called for another round of snaps making the permutations seemingly endless.
For more information or to buy tickets to the Hamptons Heart Ball, visit Hamptonsheartball.heart.org
Victor de Souza Beauty Launch
While I always like an uptown event for its convenience factor, I definitely feel more adventurous, younger, hipper at a downtown event. I recently attended a beauty launch for Victor de Souza’s new line of lipsticks at Osswald NYC Parfumerie & Luxury Skin Care Boutique at 311 West Broadway. Victor has always had an interest in beauty and has worked with some of the top makeup artists in the world including Kabuki, Francois Nars as well as Dustin Lujan who he partners with here. In addition, both of Victor’s sisters are skilled makeup artists and his father was one of the top chemists in Argentina making this foray into cosmetics a natural for him.
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| Victor de Souza & friend |
Once Lujan and DeSouza’s new formula called Hyla-Bubble was created (it traps Hyaluronic acid in micro-bubbles allowing a replenishing of moisture upon pressing the lips together), Dustin and Victor turned to finding the perfect packaging. Inspired by Max Factor’s 1920’s smooth, weighty metal casing with a modern day twist of a metal spike on top resembling a chess piece, the product will make quite a strong and interesting statement on your makeup vanity or in your bag as well as when you apply it.
The lipsticks include three different formulas including Prismatic lipstick for extra moisture and shine; Satin lipstick for the most sensitive lips and Matte lipstick in a moisture intense formula. All formulas are matched to the appropriate color (ranging from nudes to a bright fuchsia to a dark burgundy), and are named after cult films such as Liquid Sky, Doom Generation, Stage Freight, Mysterious Skin, Female Trouble, The Hunger, and Raspberry Reich.
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| The scene |
Real women are used in the advertising including two students, a blogger, an actress, a media strategist, a visual artist and an interaction designer for Google. At the event, banners of the women hung in the space as well as graced the lipstick display stands. I spoke with Katy Bychkova, one of the models who has her own blog: Stylesprinter.com and guess what we talked about? You guessed it: makeup!
The event was well attended by notables such as Hungarian Ambassador Katalin Bogyay and her husband Dr. Tamas Lorinczy, Tanja Dreiding Wallace, Lee Fryd, Ruben Farjado of Harper’s Bazaar, Mike Stefanov of Esquire, as well as a few of the same guests as the uptown Michael Kors event including Tracy Stern and Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin. On another night there probably would have been more attendees from uptown but Jean Shafiroff was hosting a competing charity event at the same time. Now if these women could just figure out how to be in two places at the same time. I’m sure they would love that especially if it enabled them to wear two different outfits simultaneously!
For information on Victor de Souza Beauty, visit Victordesouzany.com, Osswaldnyc.com or call 212-615-3111
– Laurel Marcus
