Give Dallas socialites a good party theme, and they will show up looking the part. The “Self Portrait” theme at Art Ball 50 (and its “Selfie”-themed after-party) had us wondering what to expect, and attendees proved just how creative they could be.
Some took the theme literally. Cindy Rachofsky stood out in a playful number featuring a nude on the front. But Capera Ryan went one step further, commissioning a gown with her own portrait on it.
“I designed it myself,” she says of the dress, which incorporated photos taken by Rob Wythe of Gittings Photography. “When I heard the ball’s theme was the ‘selfie,’ I put together a team who helped turn my dream creation to reality.”
Ryan had Laura Kathleen Baker print the fabric, and the Fitting Room’s Bea Harper and team sewed it together.
The next group of standouts really rocked their tops. Brian Bolke sported a more-memorable-than-usual blazer, while Kimberly Chandler also wore an artful show-stopper. Megan Ruth Bowdon divulged she picked up her neon-colored avant garde jacket, which she wore with a full-length black gown, at the Libertine trunk show at Neiman Marcus.
Some ladies wore color beautifully — and not as formally, as expected. Merry Vose’s floor-length gown, in tiers of canary yellow, silver and peach, made us wish we had shopped her closet. Dressed in bold polka dots, designer Lisa Perry — whose “Selfie” dress was among the items in the Forty Five Ten pop-up shop — proved once and for all that orange could, in fact, be the new black.
Last but certainly not least were the classics. Jennifer Clark’s lavender crop top and silky, floral-print skirt had us thinking about spring bouquets. Nancy Rogers wowed in a regal, one-shoulder royal blue gown with neon yellow accents by Rosie Assoulin. Jacqueline Anderson, wife of DMA director Maxwell, stunned in a silver mermaid gown that fit her like a glove — demonstrating that not all first ladies of major metropolitan art museums are created equal.
You can see more photos like these from Art Ball 50 here.
Leigh Williams, Lisa Perry
