I’ve recognized Palm Beacher Regine Traulsen, who’s married to earlier Metropolis Councilman William Diamond, for a lot of a number of years.
We happy on an American Airways jet method again once more within the Seventies. We have been sitting aspect by side enroute to Chicago. I used to be headed to pay a go to to the Spiegel catalogue enterprise, the place I used to be a method and design marketing consultant for its home-furnishings options.
Regine, as I acquired, was touring to meet a shopper to model and design some caftans for her. Growing caftans was portion of her trend profession in New York.
She proved to be a captivating seatmate, and I appreciated listening to tales of her residence nation, Morocco. She crammed me in on how she was lifted in Marrakesh, had attended the Sorbonne in Paris and analyzed artwork in San Francisco. And, as I recollect it, we talked about her get pleasure from of trend, inside design and magnificence, structure, Moroccan delicacies and journey.
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I found she speaks a amount of languages. Previous English, she of system speaks Arabic and French, a holdover from the instances when Morocco was a French colony.
All through our tour to Chicago, I discovered so considerably about caftans created for the likes of celebs Elizabeth Taylor and Connie Francis as properly as ladies about city. I additionally discovered about her friends, together with Andy Warhol, politicians and royalty.
We turned fast buddies. As a person of construction, I appreciated this girl of design. We have now relished every different’s company on a number of occasions through the a number of years, along with the christening of my son, Nicholas.
Regine has usually visited her homeland — steadily, that’s, until the coronavirus pandemic place a stop to worldwide journey. So now she life the Moroccan lifetime in New York and Palm Seaside, through which she and her accomplice are acknowledged for entertaining associates.
Doubtlessly “entertaining” just isn’t a vivid ample a time period. Regine and Invoice’s Palm Seashore family is sort of a movement image set, loaded with fantastic furnishings, tunes and glamour. Her features have ranged from intimate meal features for presumably 8 to 12 friends to elaborate Moroccan-themed gatherings for 100 with a buffet all-around the pool on evenings filled with lights and tunes, all delightfully intimate.
Regine enjoys to beautify, and whereas she just isn’t knowledgeable designer, she might as successfully be. She could be a 1st-course decorator, simply take it from me. I might make use of the service of her in a second for our firm. Regine has a love of blue and gold, however she retains environmentally pleasant and pink in her favored coloration palette as successfully.
Her method designer of possibility was Oscar de la Renta, and he or she wore 1 of his designs to Malcolm Forbes’ magnificent seventieth birthday bash in Tangier in 1989.
Quickly, Regine will probably be internet hosting what guarantees to be an excellent celebration herself, 1 she throws each single yr. She and her partner will probably be inviting all her mates, and the festivities are predicted to incorporate issues like a pair of camels. Mates at her soiree are instructed to have on frequent Moroccan caftans — and I can notify you from sensible expertise, it definitely will get you into the spirit of the night.
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Palm Beacher Carleton Varney is president of Dorothy Draper & Co., an international construction firm with locations of labor in New York, West Palm Seaside, London and White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. His new e-book, to be printed within the spring, is titled “The Larger Existence of Dorothy Draper.” Pay a go to to CarletonVarney.com or e mail him at cvarney@dorothydraper.com. Assist help our journalism. Subscribe lately