Saturday, May 8, 2010

Around Town - The VRG Patron Gala

Every year I always try to attend the VRG patron gala at the Virginia Robinson estate in Beverly Hills because it is one of the most beautiful events in Los Angeles. This year's "Jewels and All That Jazz" gala was stepped up a notch because the "Spirit of Beverly Hills" award was presented to the Kazanjian family for their years of philanthropy through their Kazanjian Family Foundation and their "Jewels for Charity" program.

So in addition to the usual cocktails and silent auction prior to the dinner, the Kazanjian group had set up a special display in the pool house of some of the pieces from Foundation Collection as well as some stunning estate jewelry that was being offered for sale with the proceeds going to benefit the VRG group.

After drinks on the sunken tennis court at the back of the estate, the dinner was served in a huge tent on the lawn. The party was elegant, especially given the well heeled patrician patrons of the group. The tables were lovely with centerpieces with yes...even more jewelry....because you can never have enough.
And that wasn't all. During dinner there were gorgeous models traipsing around the room in couture evening gowns by designer David Tupaz and bedecked with estate jewels from Kazanjian.
After dinner there was a live auction by Ryan Kavanaugh
who could easily go into the auction business if he ever decided to give up his day job.
Finally, there was dancing...with a band that gave us some seriously bad cover music. Really, there's like nothing more pathetic than seeing a group of middle aged white people, clad in their black tie best, dancing to "Play That Funky Music White Boy"...and yes, I was one of those pathetic people.
So what did I wear...I thought you'd never ask.
Well primarily I wore big hair...thanks to Miguel at the Lab Salon in BH who put so much product and spray in my hair that if I had been anywhere near an open flame there would have been spontaneous combustion on my head.

And, I wore a few simple diamond pieces, including a big diamond brooch in my big hair.

The outfit was a larkspur blue BCBG silk gown ($325) with simple black mules with crystal accents and my vintage Martin van Schaack evening bag. Oh, and a borrowed black mink jacket because it is cold at night at this time of the year. Hey, I figured that if I wore $300,000 in diamond jewelry, I could pull off a $300 dress!
So here's the post party, after midnight, still a little tipsy, photo...big hair and all.

The organizing for this event has been going on for weeks by Kazanjian, which of course is our partner business. Liz, Renee and Stephanie, from team Beladora, stepped up to help at the party with the baubles, and they did an amazing job. Nice work team!