Kate Upton and Astros Wives Create a Jaw-Dropping Scene at Top Designer’s Party
Adam Lippes' Clothes Cause Their Own Kind of Garden Frenzy
BY Shelby Hodge // 04.10.19Jessica Roupe, Daniella Rodriguez, Kara McCullers, Amy Cole, Whitney Crane, Kate Upton at the Bayou Bend Fashion Show & Luncheon. (Photo by Wilson Parish)
The flock of lovelies making a midday flutter through the gardens of Bayou Bend provided a genteel esthetic as they sipped champagne and shared air kisses and hugs with designer Adam Lippes in advance of his fashion presentation. And, just at the sound of the luncheon chimes, a fetching clutch of Astros wives arrived, their form-fitting frocks and flowing blonde tendrils creating a jaw-dropping moment that the museum’s old guard will not soon forget.
Daniella Rodriguez (shortstop Carlos Correa’s future wife) sporting a vavavoom spaghetti strapped yellow slip of a dress, Amy Cole in off-the-shoulder tube dress, and Kara McCullers in a leg-showing floaty number were show stoppers while supermodel Kate Upton (wife of Justin Verlander, and a new mom still breastfeeding) and Astros owner’s wife Whitney Crane dressed to the beat of a more demure drummer. Only hours before an Astros’ victory over the Oakland A’s, attention in this venue soon turned to the real star of the day — the darling Lippes.
The ladies were mad for his ladylike fashions, which are occasionally infused with the hint of edginess, his years at Oscar de la Renta coming through in the pre-fall and fall designs that Lippes presented against one of the most gorgeous floral walls ever — a masterpiece of yellow and gold roses, orchids, tulips and ranunculus spiced with pops of purple and light blue hydrangeas and waves of white snapdragons and more by The Events Company. That floral touch was complimented by beautiful pastel centerpiece bouquets from Stems Custom Florals.
Luncheon chair Elyse Lanier hosted Lippes at her River Oaks aerie during his Housotn visit and donned one of his grand leopard-print evening coats for her moments in the luncheon spotlight. (Lanier’s daughter, Courtney Sarofim, is ringleader of a coterie of Houstonians investing in the New York-based designer. She was fresh from hosting a show for Lippes at the uber exclusive Lyford Cay Club in the Bahamas)
Over City Kitchen‘s lovely lunch of poached salmon, white asparagus and avocado with shrimp, Lippes discussed his work with MFAH director Gary Tinterow, Sarofim and her table mates.
“Fashion designers are not artists,” Lippes noted. “We are really architects because what we deal with is form.”
Food for thought indeed as Museum of Fine Arts Houston director Gary Tinterow noted that there have, in fact, been several wildly successful designers who either studied or practiced architecture. Among them — Tom Ford, Pierre Cardin, Pierre Balmain and Thierry Mugler.
As it has been since its inception, the al fresco fashion fête was sponsored by Simon, parent company to our Galleria, with special participation by Neiman Marcus.
PC Seen: Martha Katherine Wade, Dr. Jennifer Segal, Terry Smith, Ann Bookout, Anne Duncan, Lindsay Holstead, Lilly Andress, Kelli Kickerillo and Mary Kickerillo, Cherie Flores, Bobbie Nau, Jeff Shell, Ally Shell, Stephanie Tsuru, Phoebe Tudor, Hallie Vanderhider, Ellie Francisco, Beth Wolff, Ceron, Jeanie Kilroy Wilson, Christopher Gardner, Rose Cullen, Karina Barbieri and Kelley Lubanko.