Rachel Pally can drape and shape jersey like the best of them. Like Norma Kamali did years before Rachel was even born, the young L.A. designer gives the stuff T-shirts are made of a new reference, and a pretty glam one at that.
Rachel’s jersey dreams were in full play at a lunch she gave last Thursday on the penthouse balcony of the Chateau Marmont (yes, it was a run up to Diamond Dogs that night, and one heck of a marathon in heels).
There were the boho gals, of course, draped in floor-grazing columns: Jewel, her pal/stylist Jessica Paster, stylist Nicole Chavez and costume designer Jennifer Rade (better known as Angelina Jolie's stylist). Ok, so it appears stylists love a loose toga. Choreographer Fatima one-upped them with whopping gold earrings and a turban (while hers was of her own making, we all received a Pally turban at the end of lunch).
But it was the city women, those who shimmied into one of Rachel’s constructed knit numbers that truly stretched even the designer’s vision. Amy Smart, Kristen Bell and Rachel Leigh Cook looked polished, effortless. Trumping all, though, were Sophia Bush and Dita Von Teese. In their own way, the two stretched their picks from the collection to an entirely new level (yes, that is Dita in emerald jersey) that had even the designer confessing she was going back to her own closet and rethinking her interpretation of her very own creations. Then again, she started it.

All Photos by Chris Weeks