Socialites Who Sew

Even royalty likes royalties

IN the beginning there was Princess Diane Von Furstenberg, who put her Holy Roman Empire-title-by-marriage on hundred-dollar wraparound jerseys and made a mint. Then came Mary McFadden, known only in certain circles in Southampton and South Africa until she found a way to mass-produce Fortuny pleats in silk-andsynthetic blends. Not long after, Gloria Vanderbilt granted Murjani the right to manufacture blue jeans with her gilded moniker on their right rear pockets. Millions were sold, and little Gloria was happy at last.

Turning one's title into a label didn't work in the case of Princess Diane de Beauvau-Craon. Her first and only collection, shown in the Grand Ballroom of the Plaza hotel, with Grandpapa Patino (the Bolivian tin king) seated front and center, left buyers and press fed up with the whole idea of stitching socialites. That didn't stop Carolina Herrera of the Caracas Herreras (they landed in the New World a couple of weeks after Columbus). Abandoning lunch with the ladies for all-night sessions with her seamstresses, Herrera impressed the fashion professionals with her hard work and high style. Better yet, her extravagant evening gowns and sharply tailored Le Cirque suits sold out in San Antonio and Bal Harbour, Birmingham and San Diego.

Saks Fifth Avenue, knowing a good thing when it sees one, grabbed the grander-than-thou line of Vicomtesse Jacqueline de Ribes of Paris for the U.S. market. Her remembrances of Diors past sold out, too, at up to $5,000 each. American women, who once dreamed of marrying a European title, now eagerly jumped at the opportunity to wear one.

By last fall, the trend Diane Von Furstenberg had started had become an avalanche. Every day some social fixture made an announcement in the fashion pages: Princess Katalin zu Windisch-Graetz is doing dresses; Pilar Crespi Echavarria, eyeglasses; Lyn Revson, sweaters; Princess Chantal of France, dishes; and the list keeps growing. In bygone times a rich woman had a dressmaker; soon every rich woman will be a dressmaker. Listen to Donina, Countess Cicogna, who recently showed her first "Party Line'' at L'Orangerie of Le Cirque: "Why did I decide to do it? Because a reporter from WWD said to me, 'You always look so great in other people's clothes, why don't you design your own?' "

A few afternoons later, Christophe de Menil, of the wildly wealthy Schlumberger clan, made her debut at the French Embassy on Fifth Avenue with a dress collection called "Excess." Everyone, as they say, was there, from Princess Firyal of Jordan to Princess Yasmin Khan, doubtless getting ideas for their own lines. Just imagine: "Lynngerie" by Lynn Wyatt. "Duds" by Jane Dudley. BMW interiors by Mercedes Kellogg...

Bob Colacello