Colette While You Can

(NEW YORK) The elusive and press-shy Colette duo of Sarah Lerfel and her mother, Colette Roussaux, were drawn into the spotlight Wednesday afternoon when Paper's Kim Hastreiter and David Hershkovits dedicated their magazine's annual fashion lunch to celebrating the hip Paris retailer's 10th anniversary birthday. "They're the art tip of fashion," said Hastreiter, who was being trailed by a reporter from The New Yorker doing a story on her for the Condé Nast title's fall fashion issue. "Sarah's more a magazine editor than a retailer. It's about style, not fashion, for them."
 
Behnaz Sarafpour, Michelle Stein, Benjamin Cho, Daryl Kerrigan, Thom Browne, and Charlotte Ronson were among the guests gathered at Indochine as well as Tatum O'Neal, Casey Spooner, Rita Ackermann, Allison Sarofim, and Mickey Boardman, who wore a Uniqlo shirt with a Pepto-Bismol pink Colette grosgrain bow tie. Ports 1961's Tia Cibani, meanwhile, busied herself getting to know her seatmates, Helmut Lang's Michael and Nicole Colovos. "They're married! With a two-year-old little son!" she exclaimed of the design duo. "Otherwise, we would never see each other," the latter quipped back.
 
Following lunch, Lerfel led a troupe of revelers outside, where they enjoyed an impromptu dessert courtesy of a Colette ice cream truck parked on Lafayette Street. Her mother, meanwhile, sat calmly inside, not so much as budging an inch from her prime center seat. "One time a year they host this, and they chose us this year," she said humbly. "Why, I do not know." As for Paper, she doted, "People in France like it because it's very American."
JIM SHI