DC Has a New Very Exclusive Club for Designer Fashion Fans

Private purchasing by now appears to be ultra-special. But the barrage of Instagram posts from the most up-to-date event for Couture Circle—a new invite-only team for fashion-loving minds—reads straight out of the Sweet House Alabama proposal scene. 

Not adhering to? A speedy refresh circa 2002: in the rom-com, Patrick Dempsey (a.k.a. McDreamy) whisks Reese Witherspoon to Tiffany’s just after-hours, in which a dozen staff members stand by as he pops the question. And then, gesturing around to all of the engagement rings, he invitations her to “pick just one.” 

Couture Circle’s private function at Tiffany & Co. at CityCenterDC on Sunday, July 10 appeared a minimal like that–minus the engagement ring (as significantly as we know). Aptly dubbed “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” the personal collecting invited users to sip Champagne as they perused jewelry the two new and vintage. Guests photographed by themselves donning jewelry from a private collection—reportedly worn by such celebrities as Jennifer Lopez—before leaving with Tiffany-branded goodie luggage. 

But the party itself, while special, was not new for the special team. Ahead of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, there was a personal browsing working experience at the Sophie Blake boutique in Fairfax. And before that, the group’s 1st formal occasion in May well: a welcome reception of gentle bites and bubbles at The Ritz in Tysons Galleria, followed by a non-public shopping experience and dessert at Gucci, wherever associates had been gifted custom made-engraved bottles of Gucci’s Bloom fragrance.

Other perks from the group’s younger existence: special entry to the Louis Vuitton X Nike Air Pressure 1 show by Virgil Abloh in New York. On the horizon: “a pampering session” for customers with the Virginia Institute, a skincare boutique and center for facial plastic surgical procedures and aesthetics.

But it is not all designer purchasing, Couture Circle’s government director Baille Benemelis, will have you know. Benemelis is effectively linked in the fashion and art planet as the regional director of the Style Team Intercontinental of Higher Washington, DC and a career advertising skilled. The club notion, she suggests, really began back in 2018 as a fundraiser for the Rodarte show at the Nationwide Museum of Women of all ages in the Arts (NMWA), for which Couture Circle, now a nonprofit team, serves as “a very pleased benefactor.”

Couture Circle involves 19 members, and counting—although membership will be capped at 25 to commence. In the mix are stylists, vogue bloggers (DC Trend Fool Barnette Holston, for one) internet marketing and PR gurus, an inside designer, a dermatologist (Dr. Tina Alster), a photographer, a jewelry designer (ahem, Sophie Blake), a retired U.S. Navy Captain, Mrs. DC The us 2021 (Anchyi Wei), a VP of federal authorities relations, and much more. What do they have in widespread? An affinity, states Benemelis, for style and art.

Paid out annual membership dues are only disclosed to “prospects,” according to Benemelis, with ten p.c of the elusive price going to the NWMA. In return, Couture Circle members are promised obtain to a selection of exceptional situations, as perfectly as other luncheons and receptions hosted by luxury makes, personal museum excursions, sneak-peeks at new designer collections, and designer meet up with-and-greets—plus special discounts and features on merchandise and companies from neighborhood businesses, and much more. 

Fascinated individuals can be part of the waitlist at the Couture Circle web page, but to obtain obtain, you have received to have an in—members should be referred by present-day members. If not, you can hold seeing the rom-com versions with the rest of us. 

Editor, Washingtonian Weddings

Amy leads Washingtonian Weddings and writes Design and style Setters for Washingtonian. Prior to signing up for Washingtonian in March 2016, she was the editor of Capitol File magazine in DC and prior to that, editor of What’s Up? Weddings in Annapolis.