The Cold Shoulder

It was the sort of party that Washington has come to expect of Ambassador and Mme. Herve Alphand. For the Opera Ball, the capital's top social event of the season, the French embassy garden was transformed into a tented version of Maxim's in Paris. Party regulars (Vice President Humphrey, Lynda Bird) and regular partygoers (Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Vogue Editor Diana Vreeland, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart) were all there, along with a clambake of Kennedys (Bobby, Ethel, Ted, Eunice and Sargent Shriver), a detente of diplomats, and a ponderosity of pundits. The music, fittingly enough, was provided by the orchestra of society's pet pianist, Peter Duchin, who is Averell Harriman's godson. And even in the crush of Paris designs, Duchin's wife, Cheray, glowed like a Botticelli blonde on the half shell.

Glazed Eyes. Cheray's Malcolm Starr gown--a flowing chiffon in lime green with one shoulder bared--was a stunner. So was the dress worn by young Washington Socialite Mrs. Eric Wentworth: flowing green chiffon, one shoulder bare. Then Mrs. John Hayes, wife of a Washington Post Co. vice president, also showed up awearing of the green (chiffon, one shoulder). As guest after guest floated in with the same model, smiles stiffened, eyes glazed. Fascinated, society editors began to keep score. They counted 15 to 20 women wearing identical or indistinguishable gowns (at $160 for the Starr silk-chiffon original, $80 for a rayon copy).

Some look-alikes seemed not too displeased to be counted among the Starrs. "I sat next to someone who looked like Joan Kennedy for five minutes before we both realized we were wearing the same dress," Cheray Duchin reported. "We laughed about it." Some of the laughter also came out slightly lime green. One woman reporter claimed that several guests repaired to the powder room to weep on one another's bared shoulder. Happiest among women were those who had bought the selfsame dress and decided to wear something else that evening. Then even they started worrying. This side of Kuala Lumpur, where on earth would anyone risk wearing it? As for Mme. Alphand, she allowed bravely that the multiplicity of look-alikes gave "a kick to the ball--in a nice way of course." But then she was wearing a Cardin polka-dot organza--on both shoulders.

Responsive Chord. The all-Starrs at least had the consolation of being on to a good thing. Their gown--featured in the June Vogue and snapped up by such fashion luminaries as Mrs. William Paley and Actress Anita Colby--is the dress of the month, and sounds one of the strongest fashion chords of 1965: the one-bare shoulder look. Jackie Kennedy may have triggered the trend when she wore a black crepe version for her first formal outing after a year of mourning. It has been used by Balenciaga in a $3,000 evening sari, by Givenchy in a flock of dinner gowns and daytime dresses, and by most top U.S. designers, whose fall lines were previewed this month. Vogue calls it "the Asymmetric Look," but Seventh Avenue has a better name: the cold shoulder.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.