Parties: Basking in the Aura

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Leave it to PR maven Kelly Cutrone, who recently inked a reality show deal with the production company Magical Elves, to put together a dinner party for a new cellphone that was actually a blast. It was hosted by Motorola at the Sunset Marquis hotel to celebrate the new Aura phone, which is interesting from a fashion standpoint in that the display is round like the bezel on a men’s wristwatch, with digital “hands” that tell time. (At $2,000, it has the price tag of a nice wristwatch, too.)

The crowd was full of cool people, sipping Champagne and eating foie gras. (Times must not be too tough for Motorola.) Costume designer Arianne Phillips, who just wrapped Tom Ford’s film “A Single Man,” was in all black except for a sparkly Balenciaga brooch. Fashion designer Jeremy Scott was looking fab as usual in an amazing black-and-white Keith Haring-print Schott leather jacket, from a forthcoming collection he’s doing for the outerwear company.

Luis Barajas, the founder of Flaunt, was reminiscing about all that the magazine has accomplished since it began publishing in 1999, and all the careers it has helped launch, including photographer David LaChapelle’s. (Barajas and a lot of other L.A. folks will be traveling to Mexico City at the end of January for the opening party for a LaChapelle exhibit at Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, his first ever in Mexico. Bryan Rabin is putting the party together, so it’s bound to be a colorful event.)

Guillaume de Castelbajac (Jean-Charles de Castelbajac’s son) sat across the table from me. He’s adorable, a graduate of Art Center in Pasadena, and recently started his own T-shirt line called Fruit of a Revolution.

Music producer/fashion designer Taz Arnold stopped by with his new protégé, the lovely singer Nye. Taz was wearing one of his TI$A MCM jackets and a hat with a four leaf clover on top. That man is a style icon in the making. I didn’t have a chance to talk to Liz Goldwyn and designers Katy Rodriguez, Bridget Romanek and Loree Rodkin, who were also there along with Mark ‘Cobrasnake’ Hunter, Cory Kennedy, DJ AM and Darren Romanelli. If only we could have played musical chairs.

-- Booth Moore

Top photo: Motorola Aura phone. Credit: Motorola