What: V.I.P. Styling Experience and brunch with Lela Rose
Where: Hope Farms
The scoop: Fashionistas, Houston’s most stylish, and ladies who lunch gathered at the sprawling urban Hope Farms for the V.I.P. Styling Experience and brunch starring Lela Rose. The haute event was a stylish stand-in for the Recipe for Success Foundation’s beloved annual Fashion in the Fields brunch and fashion show at Hope Farms, which, due to the pandemic, has been postponed to 2021.
Guests arrived to Hope Farms at carefully spaced intervals, and were quickly handed a Prickly Pear specialty cocktail from Bevi Amo, Jennifer Digges’ mobile Bar. The hip and stylish farm setting was fashioned with help from creative partners Courtney Paddock of Little Coterie, Karen Johnson of Goodie Rentals, calligrapher Jen McDonald, and Gracie Cavnar’s FlowerChild.
The Hope Farms Gathering Barn was repurposed as “The World of Lela Rose” to toast the first time that the Lela Rose collection has been shown alongside the more casual Pearl by Lela Rose collection.
Personal stylist and Pearl trunk show host, Melissa Sugulas, helped guests select pieces, while Tootsie’s fashion director Fady Armanious and his team presented the colorful Spring 2021 Lela Rose collection to passionate collectors.
Rose joined on a live feed from her home in New York City. The Texas native chatted with friend and Recipe for Success founder, Gracie Cavnar. The duo discussed how they were introduced decades ago by Tootsie’s founder, the late Mickey Rosemarin, the first Houston retailer to show Rose’s collections.
Cavnar then kicked off the fashion event by introducing six “Fashionable Farm Chicks” who are early supporters of the 2021 Fashion in the Fields, all dressed in their favorite Lela Rose. The stylish ladies included were 2021 Fashion in the Fields chair, Sippi Khurana; Stephanie Pai Fleck; Sheree Frede; Virginia McMullen; Katherine Warren; and Melissa Sugulas. Each took a twirl to the delight of the socially distanced and well-dressed crowd while Rose chimed in with observations from her catbird seat in New York.
Next, Cavnar introduced Houston Chronicle fashion editor, Joy Sewing, who moderated a lively tête-à-tête with Armanious and Rose. The trio talked fashion during COVID and how brands like Lela Rose are pivoting to fit the ever-changing needs of their customers. (The fashion event will be live on Recipe for Success Foundation’s IGTV, @r4sfoundation.)
After the presentation, the fun moved to delicious boxed lunches provided by Salata and conversations under large, shaded trees with Hope Farms’ managing director, Tyler Froberg who escorted ladies around the farm pointing out the organic crops and the always dashing, Valentino the rooster.
As guests departed, they were gifted with rose-filled nosegays from Cavnar’s Flower Child Urban Flower Farm, dispensed from Rosebud — her vintage VW truck — and a Tootsies goodie bag brimming with gifts from Lela Rose, Melissa Sugulas, and Switch2Pure.
Meanwhile, in effort to lure more major sponsors for Fashion in the Fields, 2021 Rose is offering to personally host a private styling session in New York for each of the $15,000 and $20,000 table sponsors. Additionally, the foundation is selling raffle tickets that feature an Atelier Party with Lela in New York for a group of up to 10 friends as the grand prize, according to a press release. The raffle drawing will be held at Fashion in the Fields event on November 7, 2021.
For more information, and to purchase tickets and tables for the 2021 Fashion in the Fields event, visit the event website.
Courtney Paddock, Gracie Cavnar, Karen Johnson, and Rebecca Alexander.
