Rodeo Drive Walk of Style to honor Missoni, Iman

Italian fashion house Missoni and international supermodel/entrepreneur Iman will be honored as the next two recipients of the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style Award at a ceremony next month.

They will be the 16th and 17th fashion influencers to be immortalized with sidewalk plaques, and past recipients of the award include Giorgio Armani (who became the first honoree in 2003), Salvatore Ferragamo, Edith Head, Tom Ford, Manolo Blahnik, Princess Grace, Cartier and Fred Hayman (who became the most recent inductee in a May 2011 ceremony).

Scheduled for Oct. 23, the induction ceremony will include a silent auction to benefit the charity organization Save the Children in its efforts to help families affected by the east African food crisis (Not coincidentally, the Somali-born Iman serves as an ambassador for the group.)

No word yet where in the storied sidewalk said plaques will be embedded, but it would make sense if Missoni's plaque made its home out front of the flagship store that opened at 469 N. Rodeo Drive in February 2010.  

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-- Adam Tschorn

Photo: Iman (left, credit: Andy Kropa/Getty Images) and Italian fashion house Missoni (its Rodeo Drive store at right, credit; Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times) will be the 16th and 17th recipients of the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style Award at a ceremony scheduled for Oct. 23.

Princess Grace, Cartier to get the royal treatment on Rodeo's Walk of Style

The Rodeo Drive Walk of Style is apparently expanding the universe of "style legends" it plans to honor on the famed shopping street, adding movie stars and jewelry labels to the ranks of designers, photographers and costume designers when the late Princess Grace of Monaco and French jeweler Cartier are immortalized with permanent plaques placed on the sidewalk of the retail row Oct. 22.

As Grace Kelly, the future princess starred in a handful of movies including Hitchcock films "To Catch a Thief," "Rear Window," and "Dial M for Murder," and won the 1955 Academy Award for best actress in a leading role for "Country Girl."

She met Prince Rainier III of Monaco on a 1955 visit to the principality, and married him the next year, living in Monaco until her death in a 1982 auto accident.

Cartier, which dates to 1847 and recently marked the 100th anniversary of its arrival in the United States, has quite a track record with royal families. The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) dubbed the jewelry house "Jeweller of kings and king of jewellers," issuing a royal warrant marking the firm as supplier to the king. Numerous other royal families followed suit --  including the Principality of Monaco in 1920.

But the connection is more personal than that. When they became formally engaged in January 1956, Prince Rainier III presented Grace Kelly with a platinum Cartier ring set with a 10.47-carat, emerald-cut diamond, which she wore in her final film "High Society."

His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco is slated to accept the award on behalf of his mother at the evening ceremony, which will benefit the Princess Grace Foundation-USA and the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, and takes place at an as-of-yet undisclosed Beverly Hills location the day after the Princess Grace Foundation-USA's annual awards gala fundraiser at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City.

Started in 2003, previous recipients of the Walk of Style Award include designers Giorgio Armani, Tom Ford, Salvatore Ferragamo, Gianni and Donatella Versace, James Galanos and Manolo Blahnik, photographers Herb Ritts and Mario Testino, and costume designers Edith Head, James Acheson and Milena Canonero. The most recent recipient was designer Valentino Garavani, who was honored in April 2009.

-- Adam Tschorn

Photo: In her last film appearance, High Society (1956), Grace Kelly wears a Cartier engagement ring, bearing an emerald-cut diamond of 10.47 carats. Credit: Dennis Stock/Magnum Photos

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Valentino receives Rodeo Drive Walk of Style award

Less than 12 hours after the Costume Council feted him at a dinner a few blocks away (and that following a screening of a documentary about him), legendary -- and recently retired -- fashion designer Valentino Garavani was back at the lectern, this time at the foot of Via Rodeo in Beverly Hills for the unveiling of a Rodeo Drive Walk of Style plaque in his honor.

The 13th person to receive the honor in the last six years (previous recipients were designers Giorgio Armani, Tom Ford, Salvatore Ferragamo, Gianni and Donatella Versace, James Galanos and Manolo Blahnik, photographers Herb Ritts and Mario Testino, and costume designers Edith Head, James Acheson and Milena Canonero), the gold-colored plaque bearing his name is expected to be installed in the sidewalk somewhere in the 300 block of North Rodeo Drive within the next month.

“I am completely drunk on compliments,” he told the crowd, after being introduced by actress Anne Hathaway. "Today this street is the most important fashion street in the world. It's an honor for me to have this plaque in this beautiful place. My mother always said I was walking in the clouds, now you can say people are walking on me."

In her introduction, Hathaway dressed in Valentino "from head to about the knees" (her words exactly), spoke of how she tended to get nervous every time she was about to meet the designer. "I wanted to be perfect in Valentino for Valentino," she said, noting that by the time she arrived at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for Wednesday night's screening of "Valentino: The Last Emperor" she thought she had it nailed.

"Last night I thought I’d really done it, I thought I was past all that, I was wearing one of his last, most beautiful dresses, a little black bowed number, I was gladly suffering through blistering 5-inch stilettos because they complemented the satin hemline. I was attempting to carry myself with all the elegance and sophistication of someone wearing Valentino, and I thought to myself: ‘At last, I’ve done it.’

"I was totally relaxed, totally at ease, totally confident. And then I went up to say hello to him. He hugged me, kissed me and then ... retied the bow on the front of my dress.

"Though I should have been mortified, I felt loved. Suddenly I wasn’t the girl trying to be perfect in Valentino … I was a Valentino creation.”

Wednesday night at the Montage Hotel, Valentino told the crowd he had enjoyed his visit but was ready to get back to Europe. This morning, after thanking the city of Beverly Hills and Hathaway he seemed to change his tune.

"Who knows, maybe I’ll be here one more day and win another prize," he said with a chuckle.

-- Adam Tschorn

Photos: Valentino's spring 2009 collection

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Photo: Designer Valentino Garavani and actress Anne Hathaway at the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style Awards. Credit: AP / Dan Steinberg