New York Times - January 28, 2003
BOLDFACE NAMES Chatty Kathy By JOYCE WADLER
ou know how it is when you're a mom: you become a chauffeur - no, in this case, we better say messenger. So it was, anyway for KATHY HILTON, when daughter NICKY HILTON had a party for her handbag line at Bungalow 8 on Thursday night.
Nicky, it turned out, needed her earrings, so Ms. Hilton brought them down from home, home being the Waldorf Towers. Not a huge deal, because Ms. Hilton and her husband, RICK HILTON, were going to the party anyway to cheer on their daughter. When Ms. Hilton, a pretty blonde, saw Nicky, she cooed.
"Oooh, look at that dress!" she said, embracing her very slim daughter in her black lace ALVIN VALLEY dress, then standing back to admire her some more. "I'm in love with that! So cute!"
Cling if you must to the notion of the Hilton women as party girls; the truth is that they are deeply into their work. Kathy Hilton, a former child actress who was once the voice of a talking Barbie - and who kind of looks as if she could be Barbie's mom, if you can picture Barbie's mom in a red Ungaro jacket and tight black pants - has her own show on the QVC shopping network. Paris and Nicky Hilton have a line of jewelry and are spokeswomen for Samantha Thavasa, a handbag company based in Japan.
"It's like the KATE SPADE of Japan," BRIAN LONG, the press person for the firm, was saying.
So Samantha Thavasa is a real person?
"No."
At the party: Nicky's boyfriend, BRIAN McFAYDEN, the former MTV V.J., who has been embroiled in a nasty court battle over his baby with a former girlfriend, the model HEATHER KNESE, spending a lot of time talking with Ms. Hilton's father. Also AMELIA FANJUL, SAMANTHA BOARDMAN, ELIZABETH KIESELSTEIN-CORD, the RALPH LAUREN model RALPH JACOBS, in a black dashiki and dreadlocks, and what two guests described, dismissively, as the "accessories press."
Definitely not of the accessories press: CASEY and SALE JOHNSON, of the Johnson & Johnson family, who are, respectively, the best friends of Nicky and Kathy Hilton. Casey Johnson, who smokes and favors heavy makeup, wore a chiffon jacket trimmed with blue marabou over a white T-shirt, with the top of a black bra visible. She had gotten the outfit, she said, in a store in Los Angeles called Trashy Lingerie, where a lot of Playboy bunnies go. Sale Johnson, who looked like an Upper West Sider in black sweater and pants, is a producer.
"Cute," Casey Johnson said of Mr. Jacobs, as he walked by.
"Cute," her mother agreed.
On to the bags, totes and rhinestone clutches and pink, purple, and mauve dog carriers, hanging from the ceiling of the club.
Why dog carriers?
"Paris and I have little teacup Chihuahuas that we love," Nicky Hilton said. "I love the dog carrier. One of BRITNEY SPEARS's stylists, JENN TIERNEY, has her own line of clothing called Joey, and she's doing a huge fashion show in Paris with CARMEN ELECTRA and JAIME PRESSLY and I'm walking and RACHEL HUNTER and their whole line is pink and black. So I have a black Chihuahua and Paris has a blond one so they're going to dye her Chihuahua pink. And we're going to use our accessories on the runway."
Why is Nicky Hilton, who does not need the money, designing bags?
"I just wanted to do something for young girls. Not every girl can afford a Prada bag or a Gucci bag. They're fun yet sophisticated."
How much?
"Maybe $125 to $400."
Back over to Mom, to see how she feels about the party animals she has spawned. Her daughters always seem to be out, Kathy Hilton is told.
No, she says, they're really not. The newspapers may say they are, but they're only out perhaps three times a week.
Nicky is studying design; her older sister, Paris, is studying acting in Los Angeles.
"She has a cameo in `Cat in the Hat' with MIKE MYERS. She called me yesterday from Universal at 11 and said: `Mommy, I'm tired. I've been here since 6:30, I think they're going to keep me here till 1.' She'd worked one half-hour all day. She said, `I've read two JACKIE COLLINS books, do you know who she is?' I said, `Sure I do.' `Is she nice? ' `Yes.' Paris said, `I want to meet her.' I said, `All right.' "