So much hope in the air.
A cool blast came from the Brack Lunch at the Four Seasons. Another gust from the Erwin Center during the UT Fashion Show.
Kenya Johnson and Mary Louise Adams at Brack Lunch
For a while now, the benefit luncheon for University Medical Center at Brackenridge has been the place for movers and shakers to gather and imagine the future. These solution-oriented types are the ones backing the new University of Texas Dell Medical School and the teaching hospital that Seton plans for the same quadrant of northeastern downtown.
“I’m not interested in how something can’t be done,” Luci Baines Johnson quoted her father as saying — and you could hear LBJ’s intimidating voice in hers. “I already know that. I’m interested in how something can be done.”
Johnson recalled while introducing the day’s honoree, State Sen. Kirk Watson, who has always embodied practical solutions. He brought peace to the warring business and green factions while Austin mayor. For the past few years, he put together the coalition that will build a biotech economy and an improved system of health clinics on the foundation of the med school and teaching hospital.
All told, it should cost upwards of $2 billion over the first 10 years, if I read Brack’s pamphlet correctly. Only Watson could have convinced the tax-weary electorate to pitch in the relatively modest $30 million a year for patient services provided by the medical school. (Alas, many thought we were paying for the medical school itself. No.)
The lunch practically levitated above Lady Bird Lake on the good will that this electoral blessing provided. LBJ got it right: I’m interested in how something can be done.
Taylor Ellison and Daniel Esquivel at UT Fashion Show
Speaking of getting things done, backers of the UT fashion show have found a way to keep the massive runway extravaganza up and running. You might remember that the University Co-Op was forced to back off its usually generous underwriting. What to do, then, for the dozens of student designers and their incredible array of 5,000 cheering fans each year at the Erwin Center?
In stepped activist and fashion plate Carla McDonald and former Blanton Museum of Art director Jessie Otto Hite. Their Fashion Mentors and Friends of Fashion groups collaborated with Lexus of Austin to raise $20,000 to keep hope afloat. The Longhorn Network pitched in with live coverage of the 90-minute show.
Local fashion/reality celebrities Bennett Ross and Daniel Esquivel were among those lending their charisma to the event. Also making an impact was quick-witted Cameron Silver , purveyor of vintage high fashion, author of a new book and a presence on Bravo’s “Dukes of Melrose.”
The clothes, however, remained front and center. I particularly liked the work of Mehgan McKinney, Briana Johnson, Kinni Song, Alex Born, Hannah Kim and Christine Lew. Lots of creative license on display, but also some sophisticated finished pieces that Estilo boutique owner Stephanie Coultress says she’ll nab for her Second Street shop.
Wish the LHN recording was available right now online. The kinetic camera work and editing from its sports veterans — visible on side screens — made every collection come alive.