Fashion frenzy

Dior works fast on a show featuring Japanese icon Rinka

Put on a fashion show in two days? No sweat. "I think it's more up to the second in Paris," said image designer Dean Christopher, who has staged fashion events for Paris design houses across the country. "They're always tweaking and accessorizing until the models hit the stage."

Christopher, who got his fashion start in Honolulu, is back in town to help present Dior's in-store runway show Saturday, part of Ala Moana Center's World Festival.

The fest is the event of the year for fashion fans, not all of whom have the luxury of jetting off to Paris or New York. Most of the center's luxury boutiques will be bringing in special-edition items and trunk shows, but Dior's show will be a highlight, featuring 12 models in 28 outfits from the Cruise/Spring 2006 prêt-à-porter collection, and Japanese star Rinka.

Arriving in Honolulu yesterday, the actress and supermodel didn't have much of a break before heading to Dior for fittings. She was quickly recognized by Japanese fans, who followed her with cameras in hand, saying they could not get this close to her in Japan, where she'd be the equivalent of America's Jessica Simpson.

"She's very funny; she's on all the variety shows," said Eric Takahata of A.link, who helps the center determine whom to bring in for the annual fashion fest.

"There was no question. She's very famous, a superstar who can model clothes. She was an actress first who hit as a model. Now she does both on an equal scale."

Rinka was fitted with four outfits from the collection featuring four themes: clean floral embroidery on silk look, inspired by images of Grace Kelly in China; masculine-feminine suiting of 1930s gangsters and molls; earthy interpretations of the gaucho apparel of Argentina; and the "Pretty Baby" innocence of clean whites and eyelet cut from leather.

The show will be the first display of the garments outside Paris, and from here they will be taken to San Francisco Monday and Tuesday, Los Angeles Wednesday and Nov. 10, Orange County on Nov. 11 and Las Vegas on the 13th.

"I wanted the experience to be like walking into a diamond," said Christopher. "It's going to be very sparkly, very glittery in trying to convey the same experience that a formal show might have. Every house has a specific perspective on how they should be shown. Dior is very vivacious, high-spirited."

The boutique's expansion also affords a larger space for creating a paparazzi section to add to the spectacle.

"This is for spring so we wanted it to be fresh and pretty," said Dior regional director, Cameron Maheras. "We'll have a lot of silvery mirrors and Mylar because we have a whole new beautiful environment."

DIOR FASHION SHOW Cruise/Spring 2006 Collection runway show straight from Paris, featuring Rinka: On stage: 3:30 p.m. Saturday Place: Outside the Dior boutique, Ala Moana Center Admission: Free Call: 943-6900 Also: Dior makeup artist Dennis Colum will provide consultations by appointment, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. today and tomorrow. Inside: Highlights of Ala Moana's World Festival