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| “Honestly, I’m having so much fun I wouldn’t want to be anybody else.” –Heidi Dillon photography by Allison V. Smith |
Occupation: Mom, founder and executive director of The Fashionistas, Inc.
Hometown: Minneapolis
Current residence: Turtle Creek
Who are The Fashionistas? The Fashionistas is a group of more than 200 of our city’s most stylish, sophisticated, and philanthropic trendsetters. Our mission is to raise funds to build a fashion museum in downtown Dallas to showcase the spectacular Texas Fashion Collection, which was started by Stanley Marcus in 1938 and is currently housed at the University of North Texas in Denton.
Why is it important that Dallas has a museum dedicated to fashion archives? Fashion, like art, is a visual language. Fashion tells us the story of who we were, what we were thinking and feeling, our passions and our predilections.
Dallas is fashionable because … we have a tremendous joie de vivre. The act of getting dressed in something wonderful is a joyful experience. It requires discipline and self-respect and, when complete, enables us to go off to our party, luncheon, meeting, dinner, carpool, or baseball game with a sense of confidence and well-being.
What should every proper woman have in her closet? The white shirt is archetypal.
What will you have in your closet for fall? Fall is all about Balenciaga. I have ordered a number of incredible things from the New York store.
What’s in store for The Fashionistas? On September 21, we will open our fashion museum at 1901 Main St., which is called Fashion on Main, with an exhibition titled Flights of Fancy. This is what we’ve been working for for the past one and a half years!
Like I said, it’s all about Balenciaga. Myra Walker, curator and director of the Texas Fashion Collection, has put together a major retrospective of Balenciaga’s work, which will open at the Meadows Museum on February 4, 2007. Myra has written a corresponding catalogue that will be published by Yale Press, UK. This is an unprecedented collaboration between the Meadows Museum and SMU and the University of North Texas.
Wait! That’s not all! Tiffany’s hosted The Fashionistas on September 12, when they unveiled the Frank Gehry collection, and Cartier is throwing us a Christmas party in December. This is a very exciting year for us.
Books you’re reading right now: Marcel Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past; Truman Capote’s Other Voices, Other Rooms; and the Deborah Davis story about Capote’s black-and-white extravaganza, Party of the Century.
Most prized possession: YSL black beaded tuxedo jacket signed by Tom Ford.
If you could be any other person, who would that be? Honestly, I’m having so much fun I wouldn’t want to be anybody else.
