Archive: June 2nd, 2008

INF

This Wednesday Eva Mendes, the face of Secret Obsession, will host an event for a new Calvin Klein fragrance. And while the actress has recently survived a rough patch in her life, her friend Calvin Klein designer Francisco Costa has stuck by her through thick and through thin. At last last night’s Swarovski dinner for the 2008 CFDA nominees, the designer emphasized to PEOPLE just how special the star is. “We love her!” he says. “She’s doing a commercial for a fragrance for us. And it’s great. She’s very talented. If you have the talent, you always get picked back up and develop. And she’s terrific.” But does Eva’s life experience make her more real to customers? “She has a new sort of face for Calvin,” said Costa. “When you think about Calvin Klein, it was very much one character. But now we’re much more worldly. We’ve been working with different people. And Eva’s wonderful. She’s a gorgeous woman — she even looks beautiful in her bra!” – Jeffrey Slonim

Stephen Lovekin/Getty; Janet Mayer/Splash News

Sarah Jessica Parker caused a stir when she strolled the red carpet for the New York premiere of Sex and the City in a dazzling metallic Nina Ricci gown. But it turns out it wasn’t the first time the dress had made a red-carpet run — something that was revealed to the star after the fact and is sending ripples through the fashion world. The actress tells the New York Times that although she was assured by the gown’s designer, Olivier Theyskens, that the dress had never been worn, it had in fact been photographed on socialite Lauren Santo Domingo at the Met ball gala less than a month earlier — with Theyskens himself as her escort. Most upsetting to Parker was the deception she feels was involved. “In the big picture, this is not important. But there is a relationship between the entertainment industry and fashion,” she explains of the unwritten code between stars and their designers. “Look, my affection for the dress hasn’t changed,” she says, “but what they did was so short-sighted. It’s just unethical and disappointing that they would allow the dress to be worn again. I just wish it had been handled differently and they had been straight about it.” Mario Grauso, the president of fashion for Puig (the parent company of Nina Ricci), tells the Times, “I’m upset that she’s upset.” Tell us: How would you feel if you were in SJP’s situation?

Neilson Barnard/Getty

When Nicole Richie was contacted by high-end, do-good brand Signorelli to help raise funds for Children’s Health Fund, she couldn’t say no. “Once I heard the statistics — they were crazy, [that] over 500,000 children in Los Angeles don’t have health care…of course I said yes, I was really excited to do it,” she told PEOPLE Friday night at the Signorelli’s latest line launch at Neiman Marcus’ Cusp in the Westfield Century City mall. Sporting one of the black tanks with white angel motif (her favorite piece!), the new mom also said she was quick to get the Richie-Madden Foundation into the mix. “Everything that has to do with children, of course, hits home. That’s why we started the foundation.” Sales from the line benefit the Children’s Health Fund to build a pediatric clinic on wheels to help bring urgently needed medical care to disadvantaged America Children. Richie’s goal is to raise $400,000 for the mobile healthcare unit — so start shopping! Signorelli’s angel collection is available at Neiman Marcus’s Cusp, Kitson, Fred Segal, and The Lounge in NYC. –Shruti Dhalwala