Prince Bandars D.C. Do

Strange Bedouin-fellows

A pricot, tangerine, lime: the fashions matched the fruit juices at the elaborate Saudi banquet-cum-fashion show in Washington. H.R.H. Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador, had rubbed his magic lamp and transformed the vast neoclassical A Departmental Auditorium into an Arabian walled village for the evening.

Liquor wasn't the only thing missing: the hostess, H.R.H. Princess Haifa bint Faisal, sat out the party in a temporary harem on the balcony, surrounded by ladies-in-waiting and wearing huge paisley-shaped pearl earrings with emerald-and-ruby clasps. And as purdah forbids Muslim women to appear on the same runway as men, local model girls joined the dancing Bedouin tribesmen—complete with scimitars—flown in from Riyadh.

"We haven't seen something like this since [the shah's ambassador] Ardeshir Zahedi's parties," sighed Buffy Cafritz, one of the few D.C. socialites present in a cast of corporate chieftains and Arab diplomats. Two of the three U.S. senators in attendance were, for some reason, from Wyoming. Lena Home and Roberta Flack added show-biz spangle. Kay Meehan shuttled down from New York with man-of-peace Eugene McCarthy, who yawned a lot. Even he perked up for the finale: a desert war dance, complete with beating drums, flapping swords, and a triumphantly waving Saudi flag. Carolyn Deaver's postmortem: "I went for everything but the buttermilk."o

Bob Colacello