The Fashion of the Evening

Santa Barbara Historical Museum went to gown with its latest exhibition Seasonal Soirées: Evening Couture 1880-1980 curated by former museum president Sharon Bradford, whose previous show was The West-Dressed Woman featuring frontier wear during the 19th and 20th centuries from the museum’s vaults.

Santa Barbara even launched the career of Italian designer Salvatore Ferragamo – a favorite of mine for ties, shoes, and silk pocket squares when I was a national TV anchor for CBS in New York – more than a century ago.

Latterly we had Cuban American fashion designer Luis Estevez, an old friend, the youngest ever to win a Coty Award (fashion’s Oscars), who opened a boutique on Coast Village Road when our tony town boasted two top hotels, the Arlington and the Potter attracting the affluent international crowd.

One outstanding ensemble is an 1890 black silk faille and white satin evening gown designed by Charles Frederick Worth, who founded his couture house in Paris in 1858.

Another fine example is a suit dress by Mary McFadden, an old friend from the oh-so tony Jupiter Island Club in Hobe Sound, Florida, who I used to escort to the Costume Institute gala at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Museum in the ‘80s when an editor at New York Magazine – now the domain of a former colleague, Anna Wintour, now the iconic editor of U.S. Vogue.

McFadden was also known for her pleated gowns reminiscent of the fashions of Spanish designer Mariano Fortuny, whose couture house ran from 1906 to 1946.

Unfortunately, the outfit was not in the show as it was deemed more day attire than an evening gown.

There were also a number of gowns from New York designer Arnold Scaasi – his original name ‘Isaacs’ spelt backwards – from the collection of my good friend, the late society doyenne Beverley Jackson.

Among the fashionistas turning out and dancing the night away to the Konrad Kono Trio, were former mayors Sheila Lodge and Helene Schneider, Hattie Beresford, Thomas and Sheila Lambert, Hilary Burkemper, Marc Appleton, Oscar Gutierrez, Rhonda Henderson, Karl and Nancy Hutterer, Fritz and Gretchen Olenberger, Richard and Amanda Payatt, Marie Profant, Denise Sanford, Sybil Rosen, Stefan and Christine Rosenfeld, Luke Swetland, Carol Wathen, and Robert Adams.