This Kickoff Party in River Oaks District Triggers Serious Shopping Temptation: Luckily, Your Credit Card Will Do Some Good Too

The joys of attending store parties should never be underestimated. Case in point, the recent kickoff for A Shelter for Cancer Families’ gala at Etro in River Oaks District. Could I get out of there without searing my credit card? Impossible!

I swooned over the smashing fashions that I didn’t know I could not live without! Had my conservative spending habits allowed, I would have departed the boutique with a complete wardrobe of those fabulously whimsical designs from the Italian fashion house: Fall looks that designer Veronica Etro described, “as if Ettore Sottsass  (Italian architect and designer) and Laura Ingalls were chatting together and making this new synthesis of handmade earthiness and rigorous postmodernism.”

I wasn’t alone in my admiration of the earthy, Indian- and Peruvian-inspired designs that tempted the sophisticated bohemian in each of us. While ladies swooned over the velvet cocktail pajamas and richly printed skirts and ruffled blouses, the gents perused the smart dress shirt offerings and perhaps one or two even went for the bejeweled velvet smoking jacket, perhaps reminiscent of Liberace but surely channeling Elton John. Ceron, I’m looking at you!

My purchase: the floral jacquard poncho with fringe, which, by the way, received rave reviews at a party last  night. The happy thing is, even though I purchased the poncho on Sunday, a few days after the event, Etro is generously continuing to donate 10 percent of sales to Catwalk (as it is nicknamed due to its previous brand as Catwalk for a Cure) until the fundraising evening on October 19. Just mention the gala.

Chic shoppers: Gala chairs Carolyn and Chris Dodson, Kitty and Lex Hochner and Nicole and Evan Katz, plus Nora Reardon, Erin Slosburg, Traci Parsons, Holly Radom, Dr. Kriti Mohan, Defina Meyer, Parissa Mojaher, Karina Barbieri, LeeOr Meyerson, Chaden and Dr. Michael Yafi and Leslie and Randy Fink.