After a Fashion

First mom of the Austin Music Awards: Phyllis Stegall, mother of your Style Avatar and of music cognoscente and Austin Music Awards co-founder Margaret Moser, enjoyed a bird's-eye view of the proceedings from the balcony at the Austin Music Hall. (Photo by Seabrook Jones)

UNFASHIONABLY LATE The most important party on my agenda was the StyleCaster party put on in association with Neiman Marcus, in which StyleCaster presented its choices for the 25 most stylish people in Austin. It was an unusual list, picked by someone who did not know Austin well, but the party promised to be fun. I RSVP'd for Jacki Oh, Grant Hicks, and myself, only to be told that the guest list was full. I was referred to someone else in the organization who immediately okayed us for the party. Naturally, going to a fashion party where, just by the nature of the party, we'd be judged on our style by a jury of our peers meant pulling out an arsenal of outfits and accessories for all three of us. We couldn't very well show up at a fashion party wearing someone else's clothes, could we? Jacki wore a black Art Deco style beaded tunic, double-belted at the waist, from my November show. Grant and I sported new menswear from my DIFFA collection (the event is on March 23 in Dallas; see the House of DIFFA Facebook page for details). Grant wore the black faux sheared-seal pants with the patent leather panels down the front and back, with the platinum and black metallic chenille brocade jacket trimmed with black iridescent coque feathers. I wore the black-on-black cut velvet jeans with the black sheared beaver coat with panels of patent leather appliquéd with guipure lace. Grant's hair, face, and chest were frosted with gold dust, and I had silver glitter in my mascara. Jacki was magnificently soigné, and the three of us made a high- drama entrance into Polvos for dinner with a handful of SXSWers, including filmmaker Mitch Schultz, writer Guy Garcia, Sam Monreal, and others. On to the StyleCaster party, a fashionable hour late (Jacki and I like to think of it as "impeccably late"). We got dropped off a couple of blocks away and headed towards the venue, engendering lots of gaping and, "Who are you?"s. Reaching Brazos Street, we were pleasantly ambushed by noted Boudoir Queen designer Dawn Younger-Smith and her charming husband, former Billy Idol-sideman Mark Younger-Smith. Unfortunately, they were leaving the party we were going to, even though Dawn was on the list of Austin's 25 most stylish. But several people were also leaving the party and said that there was nothing at that party for us. Dawn and Mark begged us to follow them to their next destination, Holy Mountain on East Seventh, to hear a DJ set. I tried to demur, saying we had to make an appearance after they'd been so nice to me (thank you, Meghan!). But refusing to take no for an answer, Dawn had us bundled into pedicabs in the blink of an eye, and we were completely hijacked. I swore I was going to make an appearance at the StyleCaster party at some point. Holy Mountain was fun, and we hung out with Dallas stylist Hunter Lohse and Jon Ryan, among others. Grant worked the crowd like crazy, spreading his gospel of fashion and spirituality, while Jacki and I held court on the patio. Dawn was in a social frenzy, and Mark laconically observed from a distance. We chatted up the fans while Dawn was imploring us to go to her house. Declining to be kidnapped to a mansion in Smithville, we instead brought Dawn and Mark with us to Jacki's for a nightcap. As we were winding down, I realized I'd been rude enough to not even swing by the StyleCaster party at all. Tres embarrassing.

The always flawless lovelies, Mickey Hoogendijk and Eva Strangelove, enjoyed the amazing performances and a bit of Austin history and lore at the Austin Music Awards. (Photo by Seabrook Jones)