Family raises questions over cause of woman’s deat
The family of a mother of four found dead six months ago outside a bar here is asking St. Louis County police to reopen her death investigation.,key rings
The body of Stephanie Dianne Carroll, 42, of Florissant, was discovered about 8:45 a.m. on Feb. 25 in the parking lot of Meyer's Country Cottage & Irish Pub, 4960 Parker Road. The medical examiner ruled that she died of hypothermia and acute intoxication.
Some of her relatives and Zaki Baruti, president of Universal African People's Organization,watches, met Thursday at the site to raise questions of whether Carroll was the victim of foul play.
Juliette Carroll, who attended with her husband,Beads necklace, Louis Carroll Sr., said their daughter had bruises over her entire body. "When we got her clothes, they were in very good condition. Her blue jeans and sweater were in good condition. No tears, smudges,necklaces, scuffs, dirt or gravel were on her blue jeans or sweater. No marks on her clothes of any type showing a fall, but her body had all these abrasions and contusions and bruises from her head to her toe. Why aren't her clothes torn or scraped up?"
She noted, "Our daughter was found with the top part of her body exposed. Her sweater and bra up around her neck. No coat on and no shoes. It was 15 degrees that night."
Baruti said bar employees claimed she left about 1 a.m., but a credit card found on the body had been used at 2:10 a.m. He also questioned a signature on a receipt that did not appear to be in her handwriting.
Her parents said she had been to the tavern on at least three occasions and went there that night to meet a friend she had reconnected with on Facebook. They believe someone attacked Carroll in the bathroom and left her in the parking lot.
County police spokesman Rick Eckhard,pendants, acknowledged Thursday that someone representing the family had contacted the lead investigator, seeking an additional review.
"We will entertain any information that someone wants to provide to us on a case," Eckhard said. "Right now, the status of the case is closed. If that individual comes forward with information that can change the status, we have to make that decision when we see the information."
Woman enters plea in meth case
Authorities say Deanna Kimberly Lerud kept hazardous materials meant to manufacture meth inside a Burlington home she shared with her two young children.,necklaces
On Monday, the 31-year-old woman,Atlas charm bracelet, through her attorney,pendants, filed a written plea of not guilty to manufacture of meth, possession of a controlled substance and two counts each of possession of meth precursors and child endangerment.
Her trial has been set to begin Dec. 7, with a pretrial conference scheduled to take place Nov. 22.
The investigation involving Lerud began in January when agents from the Southeast Iowa Narcotics Task Force along with operatives from the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement, deputies from the Des Moines County Sheriff's Office and Burlington Police officers executed a search warrant at the woman's home in the 800 block of North Street.
Authorities said Lerud lived there with her two children, ages 5 and 2.
During the search,money clips, agents say they found empty pseudoephedrine packs inside Lerud's bedroom, as well as an electric pill crusher. A small amount of meth also was found in a safe inside the woman's closet, authorities said.
Court papers show other materials used to manufacture meth were found in the bedroom, kitchen, attic and the garage. Several of the items seized were sent to the Division of Criminal Investigation laboratory for analysis.
In May,watches, local authorities received the results of the test, which indicated the items were associated with manufacturing meth.
Dior’s Shanghai Lady
The third episode of the online Lady Dior handbag saga, Lady Blue Shanghai a mini movie directed by David Lynch and featuring Marion Cotillard will be unveiled in Shanghai on Saturday in tandem with the showing of Christian Dior's cruise collection. The film will then go up on the Tiffany Charm bracelet Web site.
It's about memory, Lynch said of the 12-minute movie, following a screening in Paris last month. And then, when you remember, it's different.
The love story is enigmatic, rich in mystery and flashbacks. The action centers around Shanghai's iconic Pearl Tower and Cotillard fretting about a Lady Dior handbag (which emits light and fog) that appears in her hotel room. The director of Blue Velvet also interjected a blue flower as a prop.
For both Cotillard and Lynch, the two-day shoot for Lady Blue Shanghai in December marked their first visit to the Chinese city. Lynch liked its people.
The surprise, I think, was traffic jams and the fact that the city never ended, he said. You could drive for an hour and a half and never be out of Shanghai. And the amount of construction that was going on 4,000 construction sites during the time we were there. So it's an incredible, fast-changing [city].
Meantime, Cotillard was struck by the Pearl Tower.
It is pretty amazing because, when you are on top of it Tiffany Cushion Drop earrings you walk on this glass floor, you see the whole city under your feet, she said.
Cotillard described her character in the Dior spots as someone connected to her time and also connected to all the history of many things the history of women, the history of fashion and of life. She's also someone who has a vision of this time we live in and a global vision of our world and the way a woman lives in it. I think she's someone who travels travels in time, travels many places.
One memorable moment during the filming came in a dance scene, which doesn't appear in the movie but is in an accompanying clip. The floor was uneven and [Marion] was in high heels, so she fell over, recalled Lynch. It was scary and funny, both.
To him, short-format work differs entirely from full-length films.
I always learn something on every commercial, said Lynch, who has lensed another advertisement for Dior for the Fahrenheit men's fragrance. One of the reasons is that technology is moving fast. Sometimes commercials have more money, so you are using the latest and greatest technology. You learn things. You learn about more and more possibilities, and you meet new people and [go to] new places, so it's great. These short films are interesting to do.
On the longer-format front, Lynch is working on a documentary about Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The story is really about knowledge, and it is very abstract, and so I don't know exactly how I am going to tell [it], he explained.
Cotillard remembered her first encounter with Lynch, one of her filmmaking icons. It was in Los Angeles, and I went to his studio. He arrived and I could see myself as a kid watching all his movies when I was not allowed to because they were sometimes too weird or violent. And we started Tiffany Cushion Hoop earrings, she related. I tried to behave myself like a normal person and not jump all over the place. At a certain point I told him, You know, I have to tell you something. I can't believe I am here, I can't believe I am talking to you.
Before I met David Lynch, I knew that he's a director you can trust, because when you watch his movies, he respects people, life, everything movies, music, lights, sound, continued Cotillard. He has this energy of respect. And so it was two unforgettable days.
Event mixes girls night out and fashion swap
What with the temper tantrums and terrible attitudes, some divas have a bad rap. But Beads necklace Rippy intends to change that -- without sacrificing the perks that come with the D word.
She's hostess of Diva Day OK, a business that's a cross between girls' night out and fashion swap 6:30-9:30 p.m. Thursday at Blue Dome Diner, 311 E. Second St.
Billed this particular evening as "Me, You and Our Jimmy Choos," the event bows the same night as "Sex and the City 2" -- and not coincidentally, you might have guessed.
"It's about fellowship, fashion, food and fun," said Rippy, who coordinated a similar event last year for the Junior League as a fundraiser. More than 100 women attended that event.
Though the league wasn't able to host the event this year, they gave Rippy their blessing to pursue it on her own.
Here's how it works: Women who buy tickets, either online or at the door that night, come with at least six items (more are welcome, Rippy said) of apparel and/or accessories. The items are left with volunteers who sort through them, while ticket holders visit the cash bar, which will offer "Sex and the City"-inspired cocktails, recipes for which were provided by event sponsor Skyy Vodka.
Also, women will be offered a variety of spa-quality services, Rippy said, Black oynx Toggle necklace as new hairstyle consults and bang trims; pin-ups or blow-outs; demonstrations on creating smoky eyes or the "candy eye" look; henna tattoos and body art; eye makeup applications; skin consultations; hand, neck,
shoulder or back massages; and -- try to find this at other girls' nights out -- belly-dancing instructions.
An hour or so later, guests are invited to "shop" from the apparel, shoes and bags other women brought.
You can also come dressed as your favorite "Sex and the City" character for a chance to win a prize. Speaking of which, women who bring more than the minimum six items of apparel will be entered into a drawing for a spa goodie basket.
It's a great opportunity to get dressed up and enjoy being pampered, said Wendy Burgy, who plans on attending.
Plus, "It's a way for me to clean out my closet," said her friend Kasey Littlefield, who'll be in attendance, as well. She's bringing a few dressy shirts and a couple of cute skirts from Ann Taylor.
It's not just a shopping, pampering, nail-buffing experience -- it's a karma-Butterfly pendant, too, as left-over clothes will be donated to Domestic Violence Intervention Services and Resonance.
And it's much appreciated, as some women come to DVIS with "nothing more than the clothes on their backs," said Kerry Hornibrook, director of development for DVIS. The clothes not taken at the Divas Day OK event can also be used for women on job interviews so they can start a new life.
General admission is $40, which includes food, free spa treatments and six "new-to-you items" from the swap. For the $65 carte blanche admission, though, purchasers may re-enter the swamp at night's end to take home all clothing and accessories they can carry.
"A risk-taker buys this and believes her gal pals will bring more than the minimum number of items," Rippy said on her website: tulsaworld.com/divadayok .
'City' sips
As Skyy Vodka is a sponsor for "Me, You and Our Jimmy Choos," the Diva Day OK Charm bracelet hosted by Stacy Rippy on Thursday night, Skyy offered these recipes for the evening -- the same night "Sex and the City 2" opens in theaters. Bottoms up!
Deer Lakes senior the Girls Athlete of the Week
Deer Lakes senior Paige Prato ran the anchor leg for the 400-meter Bow earrings team that won the WPIAL Class AA title with a school-record time of 50.33 seconds at Baldwin High School last week. She earned three other WPIAL medals by taking fourth in the 100 (12.88) and as a member of the 1600 relay team (4:08.23) and sixth in the 200 (26.73).
Q: How does it feel to end your high school career with four WPIAL medals, including a gold?
It's probably the most amazing accomplishment I had for my senior year. I couldn't ask for better teammates.
Q: What are the challenges of putting together a successful relay Paloma's Galife Ring?
The hardest thing is communication between teammates. I think I'll be talking to them years down the road. You have to have a team that supports each other. We had that this year.
Q: You have committed to run track at Division III Bethany (W.Va.). Because you helped lead the soccer team to the WPIAL Class AA semifinals in 2008, did you consider doing that sport in college, too?
I have. Because I'm going to be majoring in physical therapy, I'm not sure if I'll try to play soccer right away. The girls (at Bethany) were trying to talk me into running cross country in the fall. If I play a sport in the fall, it would probably be soccer.
Paul Kogut can be reached at pkogut@tribweb.com or 724-226-4689.
Credit: The Valley News-Tiffany 1837 Bead bracelet, Tarentum, Pa.
Tiffany Raises Full-Year Targets
In another sign that the bruised luxury sector may be nursing back to life, jewelry retailer Tiffany & Co. on Tuesday raised its profit outlook for the year after holiday sales turned out better than expected.
Sales in the two months ended Dec. 31 rose 17% to $799.1 million, the New York-based company said. Excluding the tiffany jewelry-translation impact, sales would have risen 13% with comparable-store sales increasing 8%. The company had 220 stores as of Dec. 31.
Tiffany raised its profit outlook for the year ending Jan. 31 to $2.07 to $2.12 a share from a previous projection of as much as $1.98 a share. Sales are expected to be $2.7 billion, the company said. Last year, Tiffany earned an adjusted profit of $2.33 per share on revenue of $2.86 billion.
Analysts, on average, were looking for Tiffany to post earnings of $1.96 a share on sales of $2.65 billion for the fiscal year ending this month, according to FactSet.
Sales in the Asia-Pacific region increased 11% to $240.8 million. On a constant-currency basis, sales rose 4%. tiffany bracelets-store sales rose 1%. They declined 12% in Japan and surged 26% increase across the rest of the region.
Tiffany's fellow high-end retailers Saks Inc. and Nordstrom Inc. last week also reported better-than-expected for December, signaling that consumer spending is gradually recovering and shoppers feel more comfortable about buying things they don't need, analysts said.
Tiffany also has benefited from a return of tourists to the U.S. as the dollar loses its value against foreign currencies while demand across most of its overseas markets also remained robust, they said. Analysts have said upscale jewelry spending has picked up during the holidays as demand was driven by shoppers with higher average household income as they sought "special" gifts.
"Sales trends are strong internationally and improving in the U.S., and the company continues to face easy comparisons throughout" fiscal year 2010, said Credit Suisse analyst Paul Lejuez, in a note published ahead of the Tiffany results. He said lower diamond and precious metal costs also will help bolster Tiffany's gross margin.
In the Americas, sales increased 15% to $443.9 million. Comparable U.S. store sales increased 12%, driven by a 20% increase in its New York tiffany pendants and a 10% gain for U.S. branch stores. Demand was higher from both local customers and foreign visitors as the number of transactions increased. Internet and catalog sales in the U.S. increased 17%.
Sales in the Asia-Pacific region increased 11% to $240.8 million. On a constant-currency basis, sales rose 4%. Comparable-store sales rose 1%. They declined 12% in Japan and surged 26% increase across the rest of the region.
Sales in Europe increased 30% to $103.0 million. Excluding currency impact, sales increased 19% and comparable-store sales rose 16%, resulting from double-digit growth in the U.K. and most other countries.
Write to Andria Cheng at andria.cheng@dowjones.com
Credit: By Andria Cheng
After Hours: Fashion’s Night Out
After almost a year of conspicuous contrition, New Yorkers, armed with rainbow-colored maps highlighting the location of participating stores, took to the streets or hopped on Gray Line buses decorated with the graphic black-and-white Fashion Night's Out logo and donated for the evening for what one reveler described as a fashion Mardi Gras. Donna Karan, who had jazz pianist Eric Lewis give a concert in her Madison Avenue flagship while at DKNY Coco Rocha danced an Irish jig for packed crowds, compares the night's giddy mood to a new holiday: It was like a mixture of Halloween and the ball dropping in Times Square on New Year's Eve all over the city! she says.
President of the CFDA Diane von Furstenberg, who kicked off the worldwide shopping celebration at Macy's in Queens with Mayor Michael Bloomberg,VOGUE's Anna Wintour, Michael Kors, Kate Hudson, Macy's CEO Terry Lundgren, and the cast of Hair, agrees. It was like having invented Mother's Day, she says. Valentine's Day gift have back to school, and now we have Fashion's Night Out!
Whether it was Sienna Miller at Intermix signing the official FNO T-shirt sold throughout New York, with 40 percent of the proceeds going to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum or Oscar de la Renta performing old standards (including the impromptu classic There's No Business like Clothes Business ) with Barbara Walters, Bette Midler, and Sarah Jessica Parker, the stores were filled with a heady mix of starry names, beautiful clothes, and fabulous entertainment, while at the same time a citywide clothing drive took place to benefit the NYC AIDS Fund.
Perched on two stools on a makeshift stage on the second floor of Giorgio Armani, where shoppers were snapping up the sleek fall collection, Nora Ephron (accompanied by Rosie O'Donnell) introduced her and her sister Delia's about-to-open play, Love, Loss, and What I Wore, based on the memoir by Ilene Beckerman. With Paulina Porizkova, rock-star glamorous in a ruffled-front midnight-blue satin dress by the designer, in the front row, Nora described a red Betsey Johnson shirt that she remembered more fondly than her first marriage. Then Rosie performed a monologue from the play called I Hate My Purse, in which she talked about her relief at settling on a bag it turned out to be a neon yellow and blue plastic MetroCard tote that had never been in style, so it could never go out of style.
At Barneys, among other standing-room-only events, Alexander Wang held a fashion-runway walk-off; Ruben silver bangles illustrated copies of Isabel Toledo: Fashion from the Inside Out;Juan Carlos Obando gave salsa lessons; Justin Bond performed cabaret songs in a Rodarte dress; and the Olsen sisters served drinks on the third floor of the men's store, causing a stampede. Nearby, on Fifty-seventh Street, screen siren Charlize Theron along with It-choreographer Benjamin Millepied drew a delirious swarm to Dior, where upstairs Arthur Elgort took photographs of clients in their new purchases. By the time Andr Leon Talley arrived at around 9:00 P.M. at the Chanel boutique, where DJ Omi was spinning pink vinyl records, the house had sold 100 customized classic quilted chain bags.
Compared with the civilized cavalcade of the Upper East Side, Fifth Avenue had the atmosphere of Rio during Carnivale. Lit up in hot pink, with lines of people waiting to get inside the door, Bergdorf's was a glamorous madhouse. Zac Posen hand-painted dresses on model Anna Cleveland;VOGUE held a book signing for Extreme Beauty with Daria Werbowy and Caroline Trentini; Victoria Beckham created bedlam just by showing up; and on the seventh floor, Padma Lakshmi judged a designer cook-off in which Gilles Mendel re-created his mother's meatballs while Peter Som cooked up panko fried oysters. The event was so jammed, the doors to the restaurant apparently started to come off their hinges, and Lakshmi had to stand on a wine crate behind the bar. It felt like being onstage at a Nirvana concert, she says.
Next door, in the jewel-box setting of Van Cleef & Arpels, opera phenom Danielle de Niese dazzled guests with Mozart arias from her new album, wearing a traffic-stopping red Donna Karan dress and a spectacular Zip Pompon diamond and white-gold necklace modeled after one worn by the Duchess of Windsor in 1939.
Across the street from Tiffany's, whose sidewalks were lined in white roses and carpeted in the store's trademark blue, VOGUE's Grace Coddington, with her FNO T-shirt draped over the shoulders of her black Prada dress and tied in front in a giant Dutch-boy bow, had transformed the windows of Prada (with the help of longtime collaborators Mary Howard and Julien D'Ys) into a fairy-tale version of Little Red Riding Hood, inspired by her fashion feature for the September issue. Customers were met by a translucent forest backdrop by Mert and Marcus and a pack of silver rings dressed in Prada suits. They were having a meeting, says Coddington. Some were talking; some were looking at the moon.
And at Juicy Couture, Hamish Bowles, looking very 1930s in a Tom Ford tuxedo and a dashing mustache, regaled the room with Nol Coward ditties, accompanied by Next to Normal's musical director, Charlie Alterman, and Juicy Couture's Gela Nash-Taylor, in green coq feathers and a Lanvin beaded headband.
Meeting Justin Timberlake at Saks was my favorite thing, says eighteen-year-old tennis sensation Melanie Oudin, fresh off her charmed run at the U.S. Open giving voice to the thousands of other young girls who flocked there to see the pop star. That was child's play compared with the arrival of Hugh Jackman at Jeffrey New York. Straight from rehearsing A Steady Rain and exuding, in a rakish black fedora, the kind of old-fashioned movie-star quality that can't be bought, the actor caused more pandemonium signing FNO T-shirts than even the latest skyscraping Balmain bootie.
IT WAS A FANTASTIC IDEA, A GREAT SUCCESS, AND A LOT OF FUN, SAYS OSCAR DE LA RENTA
Downtown took on a life of its own, from the fans waiting around the block to glimpse Pharrell, who was working the cash register at his BBC & Ice Cream Store in SoHo, to the block party on Howard Street held by Opening Ceremony, where fashionphiles could enjoy dancers dressed in Alexander Wang voguing in the window and treats from the Van Leeuwen ice cream cart.
At the circus-like block party organized by Vena Cava and Bird in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the label's designers, Sophie silver bracelets and Lisa Mayock, their faces painted like butterflies, wandered around the crowd as the dress they designed for the occasion flew out of the store, while a dunking tank, says Fashion Fund finalist Sophie Theallet, who also made special dresses for the night, was a really great way to get the party rolling. Muses Mayock: Bridge-and-tunnel has now become chic!
By all accounts, the evening was a huge success. As Mayor Bloomberg says, The creativity and support we saw from the city's fashion designers and the more than 800 local retailers that participated were tremendous. Most important, perhaps, was the infectious energy, which drew everyone in. It had the right spirit of inclusiveness, says Amy Astley, who presided over the Teen Vogue block party on Bleecker Street. People came for a major night of fashion and ended up feeling like celebrities themselves.
On her way home early to prepare for her 4:00 A.M. call the next morning for the filming of Sex and the City 2, Sarah Jessica Parker passed through the fashion-fueled frenzy of Fifth Avenue. Her driver, a Pakistani man who's been here for 20 years, said in amazement, It's like a different time. Yes, she replied. It's like the past, and hopefully the future.
Gambrills jewelry store closes abruptly: Customers’ repairs not returned for months
Bonnie Richards just wanted her husband's watch fixed.
Richards, a Crofton resident, had taken the specially engraved timepiece to Parisi's Diamond Trust to be repaired in March after a previous cleaning hadn't fixed clockwork problems.
When she didn't receive any phone calls about the watch, Richards stopped by the store several Valentine's Day gift in May. Each time she was greeted by a locked door and large 'Closed' sign.
"I wasn't that concerned about it because I've dealt with them for years," she said.
Earlier this month, Richards went to the Gambrills jeweler again, but this time it wasn't just closed -- the store was empty.
"There was nothing in there," she said. "They just kind of disappeared."
Kenneth Parisi and his wife Amy owned and operated the jewelry store in the Crofton Shopping Center on Route 3 for the last 25 years.
But Amy Parisi just started contacting customers last week, -- months after some had dropped off silver rings -- to pick up their belongings.
"I was so frustrated I didn't even ask her any questions," said Christine Cheesman, who was finally able to pick up her belongings on Friday.
Cheesman of Millersville had been missing her pearls and son's watch since she took them to the jewelers in April. Like Richards, Cheesman said she had used the Parisi's services so many times, she never thought twice about trusting them with her valuables.
"We used them in past and they had always been very good," she said. "That's why we trusted them."
Amy Parisi said she didn't want to comment about the situation, because she said she was worried about talking during an active court case.
According to county civil court documents, she filed for voluntary separation from her husband in July 2007 and in November 2008 she was granted sole operation and ownership of Parisi's Diamond Trust pending resolution of the couple's divorce case. Since then, Kenneth has filed a motion to re-open the record and the case is still in progress.
Justin Mulcahy , a county Police Department spokesman, said customers are welcome to contact consumer protection agencies such as the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division or the Better Business Bureau if they wish to make a complaint about the business.
No charges have been filed against the business or its owners.
"We're aware of complaints and we're looking into it," Mulcahy said.
Stuart Tamres , president of the Maryland-Delaware-Washington D.C. Jewelers Association, said when silver bracelets go out of business and still have customers' merchandise they normally make arrangements for people to reclaim their property.
"They owe an obligation to their customers to make their repairs available to them," he said. "In most instances people go out of their way to do that."
Over the past two and a half decades in the area, the Parisi's accepted jewelry donations on behalf of Partners In Care's Valentine's Jewelry Extravaganza and participated in Bowie Knights of Columbus Hall Kiwanis charity auctions. The Parisi's also donated items to the Crofton Ecumenical Choir Auction in 2001 to help the choir defray travel expenses to the International Musical Festival in Verona, Italy.
"It's sad since they were very much a part of the community as far as people using them as a local jeweler," Richards said. "You think if someone's been in business a long time they're trustworthy."
Parisi's Diamond Trust was one of eight area jewelers served with search warrants by county police in silver cufflinks for the alleged illegal purchases of second-hand gold and jewelry. Charges were never filed against the jeweler.
Cheesman said her experience has definitely shaken her confidence.
"I do appreciate they were helpful in getting it back," she said. "But now I have this thought in the back of my mind: Who should I trust with my jewelry?"
New York socialite Debbie Bancroft searches out bargains
Debbie Bancroft's closets are crammed. Sometimes she puts two dresses on a hanger. "I try to get the thinnest hangers I can so I can fit more," she said.
Ms. Bancroft, who has managed to become a fixture at fashion shows, movie premieres and fund raisers without being mega-wealthy, maximizes her closets, which are modest by socialite standards. Her 1,600-square-foot Upper East Side Manhattan apartment, the top half of a duplex that once housed George and Ira Gershwin, includes three closets for her wardrobe, one 10 feet by 4 feet, the others 4 feet by 5 feet and 8 feet by 6. The three closets hold only her go-to, in-season items; everything else is stored in her Southampton home. Ms. Bancroft, 55 years old, lives with her husband, William Woodward Bancroft Jr., an investment manager, and their daughter, Serena, 13. Their son, 19-year-old Will, is away at college.
Ms. Bancroft, who writes a society column for Avenue magazine, gets a lot of her clothing as gifts from designer friends such as Vera Wang. "With this social life, I go out a lot and have a good shot at getting photographed," she said. The rest are mostly presents from friends or deals she scored at sample sales. "For me to go and outright and buy something is unusual for me," she said. "There are very few pieces I'll pay full price for without blinking."
Wearing a custom, short, strapless, feathered dress given to her by Calypso, Ms. Bancroft said she has no intention of retreating to older, perhaps more matronly styles of clothing. "The legs are holding up. I've got plenty of time to wear conservative suits," she said. She pulled out a funky ensemble by her friend designer Nicole Miller: a black coat decorated with Art Deco and vaguely ethnic prints with a matching sheath dress and skirt.
"She's fearless," said Ms. Miller. "I've never heard her say 'I'm too old for it.' Not that you want to go out and look foolish, but she's a very confident person."
Ms. Bancroft's bedroom closet is hung with 100 dresses in the front; in the back are skirts and blouses on a bottom rung and 30 suits on the top. Her attic, an unusual feature in New York, has the two other closets, the first bearing spring summer clothing and the other containing long, evening dresses and skirts, including a grey silk dress by Carolina Herrera decorated with hand-painted flower motifs, crystals and silver threads. "There are traces of the last party on it," she said, pointing to liquid stains.
The Carolina Herrera was purchased at a sample sale. Ms. Bancroft said she sticks to a budget whenever she shops, often buying on discount. She said she thinks her least expensive purchase is a $60 Kate Moss Topshop dress, bought on sale last month while she was shopping with her daughter and since worn at an art-crowd party. "I was kind of hip in my Topshop," she said, holding the black and silver metallic three-quarter-length sheath. She also bought a pair of $100 silver high-heel shoes to go with the dress.
Occasionally, however, she will splurge, like the time, four years ago, when she spent $1,500 on a vintage Chanel dress. The torso of this sleeveless piece, which was made in the late 1980s, is made of black plastic that resembles the quilted pattern on Chanel's classic quilted handbag.
She recalled the day she purchased the item from a trunk show for Decades, a Los Angeles boutique that specializes in 20th century vintage couture. "I was at my thinnest. I was feeling at my most physically optimal moment. I put it on and it was an enchanted moment. There's always a piece you put on and when you come out and in the whole room there's a collective sigh. So I bought it." She hasn't worn it recently. A size 2, "it's a little tight," she said.
The only child of a doctor father and a nurse-turned-homemaker mom, Ms. Bancroft grew up on Long Island. After attending Finch College, a women's college in Manhattan, she embarked on a career working for magazines such as Elle Decor.
"There's nothing boring in her closet," said another friend, Tiffany Dubin, a decorative-arts appraiser, auction coordinator and stepdaughter of A. Alfred Taubman, a former chairman of Sotheby's. "Everything's unique. It reflects her personality. It's creative, but it's got an edge and it's got a little conservatism. It's also kind of ageless in a way."
Ms. Bancroft's bedroom is also packed with shoes -- she estimated owning roughly 150 pairs in total. One favorite is a pair of black satin Manolo Blahnik shoes with crystal-studded heels that she holds up like jewelry. "I wear [them] often, but judiciously, as they are satin," she said of the shoes, which were given to her for her 50th birthday by Lisa Jackson, an interior designer. "I know there will be a day when the satin has frayed around those beautiful, hard crystals, and am already planning on how I'll revive them." Ms. Bancroft keeps her 60 bags or so in cabinets built inside her closet.
She got a tan silk wrap dress patterned with orange, pink, black and white ovals and semi-ovals of various sizes by Pucci merely by showing up to a lunch hosted by the label. "At the end of the lunch, [a senior public-relations person] held a little picture of four different dresses and said, 'Tell me which dress you like and you'll get it on the way out,' and I'm like, 'Yeah!' " she recalled, still awestruck. "That's my best goody bag ever in the history of my life."
Jewelry stores dressing up downtown Portland
If downtown Portland is a diamond in the rough, then retail jewelers are preparing to cut and polish.
Local jewelers Dave and Rick Rogaway are preparing to open a diamond-only store at 534 S.W. Broadway. They'll open the doors to the downtown LaRog Jewelers on Dec. 1, two weeks after the Portland debut of Tiffany & Co. and three months after Ben Bridge Jewelers opened its downtown location.
The new openings mean more competition for downtown's existing jewelers. While the industry's party line seems to be "the more, the merrier," the new stores are taking steps to differentiate themselves.
"We will be the only store in the state that is 100 percent dedicated to diamonds-no watches, no pearls, no colored stones-just diamond jewelry, a lot of bridal sets and a lot of loose, certified diamonds," Rogaway said.
"We looked at the competition downtown and it's so overdriven in watches, and watches are not our forte anyway, diamonds are our thing," he said.
The diamond-only theme extends the approach the Rogaways took with their Washington Square store. That LaRog location stopped carrying watches a year ago, and Rogaway said it, too, will carry only diamonds within another year. Meanwhile, the Rogaways are looking for a site for a new east-side store, he said. When they find it, they'll close both their landmark location at Southeast 82nd Avenue and Foster Road and their store in Clackamas Town Center.
Rogaway said the 855-square-foot downtown LaRog (the founders chose the LaRog name to avoid confusion with jewelry stores run by relatives under the Rogaway name) will target a slightly younger customer, generally the engagement market, than those sought by most other downtown jewelers.
The arrival of Tiffany "is great because it makes our prices seem so affordable," he quipped.
New York-based Tiffany is certainly known for high prices and high style, but executive vice president Beth Canavan said the 160-yearold chain carries a broad range of products, extending from exceptional, special-occasion wear to pieces more suitable for everyday wear.
Caravan said Tiffany entered Portland "because we have a solid base of preexisting customers, and there will be dynamic growth to support the store in the future." Those pre-existing customers either shopped at one of the other Tiffany stores around the globe or availed themselves of Tiffany's direct marketing services.
Tiffany's 7,000-square-foot store on the ground floor of the Pioneer Place parking garage will open Nov. 17. Industry insiders say an adjoining space in the same building was almost leased by Mayor's, an upscale Florida jewelry chain intent on establishing a national franchise. At one point this year Mayor's let it be known it was coming to Portland, but a spokesman said no such plans now exist.
Publicly traded Tiffany also carries an extensive selection of silver, china and crystal tableware.
That inventory puts Tiffany in direct competition with Portland's Carl Greve Jewelers, a 77-year-old establishment at 731 S.W. Morrison St.
Still, Tiffany has its own niche, particularly on the jewelry side, in that it carries products designed by a select but small group of in-house designers, including Elsa Peretti, Paloma Picasso and the late Parisian designer Jean Schlumberger, said Carl Greve III, CEO of the local store.
In contrast, the 10,000-square-foot Carl Greve Jewelers represents award-winning designers from around the world, Greve said. In short, the quality of design and craftsmanship at Greve is on the same level as a Tiffany, but the selection is broader, he said.
The selection offered by the new Ben Bridge store falls between that of diamond-specialist LaRog and large competitors Tiffany and Carl Greve. The 2,500-square-foot store at Southwest Fifth Avenue and Yamhill Street carries jewelry and watches, but no tableware.
"More jewelry stores in an area is more positive for consumers from the standpoint of comparison shopping," said Jonathan Bridge, coCEO of Seattle-based Ben Bridge, a unit of Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway.
A greater concentration of stores will prompt people to come downtown specifically for buying jewelry and will increase the size of the pie, he said.
"The jewelry slice of the luxury pie is minuscule compared to travel and hospitality," Bridge said. "If we can just shift a few of those dollars into something that people will be able to keep forever rather than for just a few days and some memories, that will put us in a better position."