Starry nightsFriday saw the opening of Reverie, the high-fashion boutique run by Avanti Birla, Kaajal Anand and ace-designer Manish Malhotra. And the guest list was a virtual who's who of Bollywood and Mumbai's high society. Akshay Kumar walked in with "new-fiancee" Shilpa Shetty and stayed glued to her through out the evening.Raveena Tandon was there too - refusing to react to her ex-boyfriend's latest romance. Sridevi, Aditya Chopra, Sooraj Barjatya, Ketan Desai, Karisma Kapoor (with mom Babita and sister Kareena), Pooja Batra and Sonali Bendre were all there. Kajol in fact seemed to like the clothes so much that she stayed put at the Napean Sea Road store through the evening and even left after everyone else had said their goodbyes.Also present were the creme de la creme of Mumbai's jet-setting elite - Gautam Singhania, Anna Bredmeyer, Lia Dubhash, Rhea Pillai, Pallavi Jaikishen, Aarti Surendranath, Arjun Mehra, Sheetal Bhagat, Atulya Mafatlal and Gauri Shah Rukh Khan.While the previewwas meant to wind up at 10.00 pm, most of the 225-odd guests stayed on till much later and finally the hosts were forced to wind up the party by midnight. The colour scheme for the store is cream, blue and silver, so the canopy on the lawns next door were cream in colour with tables to match - complete with silver candles. Wine, cheese and snacks completed the pretty party picture.Glowing affairSaturday night saw the who's who of the glamour world - Madhu Sapre, Sheetal Malhar, Bipasha Basu, Helen Brodie and Aditi Govitrikar - model the top designs at the prestigious World Gold Council Show. The jewellery was all in gold, of course, and was divided in three categories - formal, casual and wedding jewellery. The show was choreographed by Lubna Adams. "The rehearsals were quite intense and went on for three days," said Helen Brodie. The zig-zag ramp was a hit with the crowd present at the glittering night.King's feastTanjore, Taj's Indian restaurant, has started weekend thalison Saturdays and Sundays. And seen last week relishing the spread was Carol Gracias, the winner of the L'Oreal Look of the Year contest. The thali provides a meal fit for a king. Besides soups and salads, there are four starters, five main dishes, two types of dal, curd in a matki, two types of rice preparations, four assorted breads, that is rotis, parathas, nans etc and then two different desserts. The food is great and unlimited and priced at Rs 325 for the vegetarian thali and Rs 425 for the non-vegetarian thali. Shopper's envyGUCCI launched its new perfume for men, Envy, at Shoppers' Stop on Sunday. And Milind Soman and Bipasha Basu were there to do the honours and much more. The model duo were at the venue for nearly two hours. And they spent most of their time spraying the perfume on everyone around, autographing blotters and distributing them to Sunday shoppers. The poor models stood behind a counter, sweating it out and cracking jokes over the store's announcement system.Also seen were SabahKhalili, accompanied by a tall hulk, Ruby Bhatia, Ayub Khan and Gayatri. And after Milind and Bipasha were done with their part of the deal, they were finally escorted to the cafeteria for a much-needed food break.Eco designOn this coming Friday, Melange introduces the range of another eco-friendly designer - Priyadarshini Rao. She presents her line of men's wear which is dominated by easy clothes in natural fibres. She has even co-ordinated a collection of accessories in weathered copper and etched brass.Says Rao, on her range, "The clothes are transient in their very silhouettes. I call it liquid geometry. Based on straight lines, right angles and squares - these oversized garments can cloak or reveal sensuously."The colours are muted - shell pink, sand, sky, ecru, beige, aqua blues and greens. These are cut and sewn in linen and silk. And intricate jacquards are over-dyed to recreate what Rao calls a "fossil-like delicacy".Art blastLast Saturday, the who's who of the artworld headed toward Lower Parel. The occasion was the opening of the new premises of Sakshi art gallery. Shifting from Altamount Road to Worli, this art gallery can boast of being the biggest art gallery in the country.Over 200 people turned up and among those who came to congratulate Geetha Mehra, the director of the gallery, were Jehangir Sabavala, Kekoo Gandhy, R K Lakshman, Laxman Shrestha, Nalini Malani, Sanjna Kapoor, Kaushik Mukhopadhya and Gallerie's Beena and Rafiq Ellias.
