Daily Front Row

2007 August 29

See You Later, Alligator

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Ferebee Bishop Taube in Calvin Klein and Sarah Hearey in Prada
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(NEW YORK) Ferebee Bishop Taube’s spacious Lafayette Street apartment was the scene of an intimate cocktail gathering and trunk show Tuesday night, as the fashion publicist and friends Eleanor Ylvisaker, Alexis Bryan, Zani Gugelmann, and Lydia Fenet fêted handbag and jewelry designer Sarah Hearey. “I love designing something that’s functional and useful,” Hearey enthused. Launched in December, the collection of exotic-skinned creations (the designer uses leather, python skin, crocodile, alligator, and ostrich in a variety of different colors and styles) is sold at Takashimaya and, more recently, select pieces have been featured on the reality show The Fashionista Diaries. The bags are accented with oxidized hardware made using the “lost wax method,” an arduous 32-hour-per-piece process which is also used to make Hearey’s heron pendants and bangles.

“I think that the fact that I have a custom business is what sets me apart,” remarked Hearey of her collection, where customers can pre-order the color, skin, and style of their choosing, and receive their custom creations in three-and-a-half months. “I feel so lucky to be able to do this in New York!”

Ylvisaker, pointing at a silver python clutch with chain enclosure that she was particularly enamored with, discussed her upcoming Fashion Week plans. “I’ll be missing most of New York because I’m going to a christening in London,” she sighed. “And my trip doesn’t overlap with London Fashion Week, so I’m missing that as well; but I’ll be in Paris during Fashion Week so I’m excited for the parties and the shows.” Bryan, meanwhile, expressed some fashion woes of her own—excited about the impending chaos, she was more worried about the aftermath. “I have a shoot the day after Fashion Week ends, and I’m worried that I’m not going to be able to get any product to call in,” she lamented. Perhaps one of Hearey’s bags will do the trick?
JENNIFER BARTON