One of the coolest things about a MAX Fashion Show — besides the clothes, of course; they’re always special — is the people-watching. Boutique owners Max Martinez and Scott Seale have some of the most interesting followers, a lively bunch that puts the zing in the pre-runway action at events like last Friday night’s benefit for the Mike McMorris Cystic Fibrosis Center at Children’s Hospital Colorado.
They have impeccable taste in fashion, and whether they’ve chosen vintage or the season’s hottest look, they cause heads to turn and cameras to click. For all the right reasons.
“It’s fun to see so many people wearing our clothes,” confided Marysia Woroniecka, co-owner of the New York-based Zero + Maria Cornejo fashion line that was featured at this event held at Exdo Event Center. “Many of them are from previous years, but they still look good, don’t you think?”
Tricia Youssi, who chaired the benefit that raised $200,000 with Kathleen Beatty, wore a hot-pink number from the designer’s spring-summer 2012 collection, and Alice Richards reprised a black stunner from winter 2010. Martinez himself wore a suit from the Zero + Maria Cornejo men’s collection and shared that it was what he chose when he and Seale exchanged wedding vows in Zihuatanejo, Mexico.
Kate Sutton, founder and creative director of Birdie, gave a nod to the Denver Art Museum’s upcoming “Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective” by wearing one of that designer’s silk shifts. Last year’s show chair, Ann Reidy, added a fun element to her little black dress by Lanvin by wearing Christian Louboutin stilettos that had a maribou vamp.
Beatty’s daughter, Piper, spoke at the show’s start, describing how she was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when she was 6 months old and was fortunate enough to have a successful double-lung transplant in 2011. She is a graduate of Columbia Law School, lives in New York and says that without the care she received at Children’s she might not be alive today.
Hospital president Jim Shmerling and Steve Winesett, head of the Children’s Hospital Foundation, were at the sold-out event, too, along with MDC chief Larry Mizel; retired banker Dick Kirk and his wife, Susan; consultant Carolyne Hyde; Factory Design Labs vice president Megan Fearnow; 5280 Consulting Group president Kasia Iwaniczko; former Piton Foundation director Mary Gittings Cronin; 9News anchor TaRhonda Thomas; stylist Patti Shyne; Becci Matheson and Sara Brito. Matheson is married to Hugo Matheson, founder and executive chef of The Kitchen, which this week opened a Denver location in Lower Downtown. Brito directs The Kitchen Community.
Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com; also, and @GetItWrite on Twitter
