Nutcracker and Sugar Plum Fairy
With a chill in the air, Nutcrackers seem to appear like fur coats. On Thursday, December 5, the Nutcracker was standing guard with a petite ballerina at his side in the Winspear lobby for the annual Tutu Chic fashion show and luncheon.
Benefiting the Texas Ballet Theater, the event has become a loving and beautiful tradition for ladies who lunch and love fashion.
Unlike past years when champagne-filled flutes were everywhere, this year the stemmed glasses were way outnumbered by boots and black opaque stockings.
While the majority of guests (Lee Bailey, Ashley Hunt, Lynn McBee and Jill Tananbaum) partied in the lobby, a small batch of gals (Olivia Kearny, DeeDee Lee, Claire Emanuelson, Shelle Sills, Jill Rowlett, Kris Johnson and Honorary Co-Chairs Dee Wyly and Niven Morgan, to name a few) sipped and charmed in the green room backstage.
Right on cue, both groups of guests were directed to their seats on stage for the fashion show featuring designs from Naeem Khan.
What makes this fashion show remarkable is the cast of models. They’re not your typical statuesque pros. Rather they’re the itty-bitty Texas Ballet Theater ballerinas with their male partners providing support, literally.
Texas Ballet Theater dancers
After having flowers delivered via male dancers to key people including the event chairs/sisters (Kathryn Munson Beach, Meg Munson McGonigle and Merry Munson Wyatt), Stanley Korshak main man Crawford Brock praised the dancing models for their healthy looks, but he forgot to give a tip of the hat to the male dancers, who jumped sky high and did the “heavy lifting.” OK, so maybe the ballerinas are light as feathers, but they still wouldn’t be airborne without the gents skillfully lifting and catching them.
Missing left strap
The presentation of fashions went off without a hitch. Well, there was that strap. What strap? Well, one of the ballerinas wore a multi-colored dress with bare shoulders. At one point in her dance with her partner, the left clear strap seemed to be MIA. Without missing a beat, a lift or move, the dancers completed the performance with hardly anyone in the audience noticing including TBT’s Artistic Director Ben Stevenson, Naeem and Crawford just a foot or two away.
Crawford Brock and the ballerina models
For the finale, a bride surrounded by a gaggle of beautifully dressed model took their bows with faux snowflakes falling from above. It was then that Crawford returned to the stage to put out a call for support for ballet slippers. It seems that a dancer can go through three pairs a week!
Naeem Khan
Nancy Rogers
Then the auction of a fashion package for Naeem’s fashion presentation in New York City was underway. Hands around the stage raised. Still the bidding was not achieving Naeem’s plan, so he took the mic and added dinner at his house. But he also let the audience know that he expected the package to raise $10,000. The hands that had previously fluttered in the audience, drooped. Then there was a nod from a blue-eyed blonde seated next to jewelry designer Sue Gragg on the front row. Yes, you guessed it. Nancy Rogers had once again saved the day. Smiles lit up the room.
The group adjourned to the lobby for lunch and memories of Sugar Plum Fairies who had dominated the day’s catwalk.