Doug Henwood wrote:
> [first Monica has a handbag line, then Nicky, soon everyone - *I*
> want a handbag line!]
>
> New York Times - January 28, 2003
>
> BOLDFACE NAMES
> Chatty Kathy
> By JOYCE WADLER
The Hilton twins hang out with the Johnson & Johnson spawn? And is "Amelia Fanjul" the effluvium of the Fanjul sugar empire?
Seth
>
> 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.' "
>
>