Pink hair glowing, false eyelashes fluttering, Vivian Wise was in her element — the spotlight —Tuesday night as she hosted a colorful mix of hipster friends, bloggers and editors to the media launch of Heart of Fashion, her latest entrepreneurial venture.
Champagne laced with 24k gold flakes, Cosmos and other libations fueled the trendy crowd as "La Fashionista," who doesn't herself imbibe, explained her "labor of love."
"I wanted to do something more meaningful," Wise intoned. "Presenting fashion as a vehicle to serve a higher purpose, to really make a difference." Thus, the three-night fashion fete set for November 18-20 will have a charitable component.
In fact on this night, media were given the opportunity to select the charity of their choice between Legacy Community Health Services, Meals on Wheels and Epidermolysis Bullosa, their selections receiving a $300 donation from Wise in each guest's name.
The event at historic Fire Station #3 was well recorded. Smart phones whipped through the air in paparazzi-style flurry while Chita Johnson's Channel 11 camera man recorded the eclectic scene. We're not sure how many captured the priceless photo of Wise and her mentor in this project, Carolyn Farb, wearing the same cocktail dress, albeit in different colors — a Talbot Runhof frock from Elizabeth Anthony.
As might be expected of a woman with a reach deep into the Houston scene, Wise tapped Armandos to provide the Tex-Mex party fare, DJ Lewis Grell to spin the discs and Mazeray to provide the premium bubbly and trendy rosé.
Joining the party was Ali Davoudi of Million Air Houston, the five-year sponsor of Heart of Fashion and the location of the event; jeweler Franco Valobra, who is designing an original statement piece for auction; and Dallasite Charles Ward, Idea Works Inc. honcho, in from his summer base in Santa Barbara. (His company did the branding for Heart of Fashion.)
Sergio Morales, Elizabeth Petersen.
