HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL I went to my 30th high school reunion last weekend and wound up being the main attraction at the big event. It was an honor I neither asked for nor wanted, though of course I am a publicity whore. It started innocently enough with the event coordinator asking me if I’d show a few outfits from my collection at the reunion. I was reticent, since I’d honestly just wanted to go down there and relax among friends. Soon it evolved into eight models and 40 outfits. I was very nervous about the whole thing. Needlessly, of course, but I was committed to doing it and in a strange way wanted to prove my worth to all those people I’d gone to school with. I really knew so few of my classmates; I had been at the school for less than a year, and I didn’t have the bonding experience of graduating with them. It was a very memorable time, but I wondered if I was a part of them or not. Arriving in Houston, I’d forgotten how treacherous Houston’s climate is – the humidity was hideous. How had I stood it for so many years? How had I survived, or better yet, how had my hair survived? The endless freeways made my head spin, but soon the landmarks began to pop up like mushrooms after a spring rain. There was the old phone company building where I used to work, the place over there used to be a club where I spent many evenings, I lived right over on that street, and I always like to drive past the Blood and Money house of Joan Robinson Hill. Settling into the Hotel Icon, my favorite hotel ever, I tried to relax while preparing for the first reunion event, which was at a comedy club. Once we were there, the names and faces came rolling in. It was fascinating to see how we’d all matured – some looked wonderful, some did not. Online, we’d all shared our concerns about aging, and had jokingly rechristened the event as the Guts & Butts Ball. I immediately fell in with someone I did not remember at all; he said he’d been a hillbilly back then, and, well, I was definitely not a hillbilly. But we had fun driving around, even getting lost under a tangle of overpasses. It was beginning to feel like a Bonfire of the Vanities moment, and I made a pretty lame Melanie Griffith. I didn’t even have a tight dress on, though I suspected many of my former classmates wouldn’t have been surprised if I had. I skipped the school tour the next morning. I’d turned my cell phone off the night before and had forgotten to turn it back on, so I slept blissfully late, watched TV, and lolled in bed for hours – that was a real vacation for me. But the clock ticked, and I’d have to appear at the big event soon and present the fashion show. I was desperately afraid it would be one of those hideous little poor-quality shows that I like to rip to pieces in this column, but the only way to fix it was to drink another margarita and pray to the gods of Dior and Balenciaga to guide me through the night. Fortunately, Vogue and W were not going to be covering this, so I relaxed. The girls were beautiful, especially with the expert hairstyling of Ceron and his staff at the très chic Jose Eber Ceron Salon. (When we walked into the salon, Ceron was styling the gorgeous Holly Moore, PaperCity‘s editor-in-chief. It was sort of like running into Anna Wintour, but Holly’s much nicer than Anna. Speaking of Anna, I have high hopes for The Devil Wears Prada because we know that it is a work of fiction and any similarities of the main character to Anna are a complete coincidence.) The show went swimmingly. I revelled in the response from the crowd, and even felt like I really had graduated, even if my senior project was 30 years late. I’d always wanted to be a part of them. Had I achieved that? Yeah, I’d have to say I did.
BIG & BOLD The swank new Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams furniture showroom has opened (2785 Bee Caves Rd.), bringing their bold and inimitable style to Austin. I love the feeling of substance their furniture has, making strong statements with quality components – but it was all the beautiful accent pieces that really made me take notice … well, and the colors and fabrics, too. Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams sell through Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel, Restoration Hardware, Storehouse, and Williams-Sonoma Home, but the pleasure is seeing their own work in their own showroom, which is owned by Greg and Joni Greeson, former executives with the phenomenally popular, Best of Austin-award-winning Eurway. See www.mgbwtexas.com for further info.
This article appears in June 30 • 2006.