Couture gown display comes to isles

Escada is bringing in 30 couture gowns, among them a half-dozen celebrity gowns, to help celebrate Ala Moana Center's World Festival.

The gowns will be displayed during center hours from 2 p.m. tomorrow through Sunday evening.

» World festival calendar.

Red-carpet gowns to be featured include a pale green silk custom couture gown worn by Kim Basinger to the 1998 Academy Awards, when she won the Oscar for her role in "L.A. Confidential," and a nude sequined custom couture gown worn by Katherine Heigl of "Grey's Anatomy" to this year's Emmy Awards. Also on view will be gowns worn by Golden Globe winner Geena Davis and "Nip/Tuck's" Sanaa Lathan.

Escada's latest looks for Spring/Summer 2007 form a major part of the exhibition, and will be offered for sale, with a portion of proceeds benefiting the American Heart Association and the Children's Alliance of Hawaii. The celebrity gowns, part of an archive collection housed in New York, are not for sale.

Escada's Hawaii store manager Mariese Montano-Smith put in her request for the gowns a year ago, knowing that they would be in demand at Escada boutiques nationwide.

"The caravan goes from store to store, but usually for only a day, or a weekend," she said. "Hawaii usually doesn't get to see the couture selection, and this will be the first time in the three years of the festival.

"When you bring in a show like this, customers get excited and the energy is contagious," Montano-Smith said.

Call 973-3738.