Haute Event: AAU Luncheon and Fashion Show with Fashion Royalty

Event:  Academy of Arts University Luncheon and Graduation Fashion Show
Date:  Thursday, May 3 2012
Photography Credit:  Drew Altizer

The fashionable set of San Francisco were all busy all week in preparation of some serious fashion royalty’s arrival.  Sarah Burton, head designer at Alexander McQueen and the designer of the wedding dress of the decade (Duchess Middleton’s) came with British Milliner to the elite, Phillip Treacy.  Also in attendance was her royal highness, Princess Reema Bandar Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia, who manages international retail brands in her country.  The stalwarts of fashion press, Suzy Menkes of the Herald Tribune and NY Times firecracker Cathy Horyn, were also there.

The ties that bind Ms. Burton to San Francisco and the AAU are simple and nostalgic.  The Director of the School of Fashion is Simon Ungless, who attended Central St. Martin’s University with Lee Alexander McQueen.  It was Ungless who noticed Burton’s talent when she was a student and offered her an internship with McQueen, then working from a tiny London studio.  McQueen had strong ties to Treacy for he often commissioned the milliner to do his elaborate headpieces for collections.

That being all said, many were wearing McQueen or Treacy during both the luncheon and show.  Pictures are taken from sfwire and from Drew Altizer.