The Fashion Gene Awards & Clooney Fever

Elegant ladies and philanthropists gathered at Tootsies for Dress For Dinner Fashion Gene Awards. The fashion show narration was eloquently presented by none other than Clifford Pugh, Houston’s noted fashion writer and Editor-in-Chief of Culturemap.

Gracie Cavnar, founder of Recipe for Success Foundation, teamed up with Tootsies for a fashion show featuring some of Houston’s fashionable and dynamic mother/daughter duos at the first annual Dress for Dinner Fashion Gene Awards. Amongst the duos that rocked the runway were: Susie and Annie Criner, Chris LaFollette and Lauren Morris, Mary and Kelli Kickerillo, Nancy and Lauren Levicki, Karen and Katy Mayell, Judy and Jessica Nyquist, Roz and Crystin Pactor, Lauren and Evan Rottet, Vicki Rizzo and Mauri Oliver, Candice and Caroline Schiller and Anita and Joy Smith.

While spectators sipped slimritas and nibbled on food bites from Pondicheri, they also enjoyed the latest spring and summer trends.

Photos by Roswitha Vogler [photosbyrovo.com]

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Meanwhile it was full house at the Wortham Center, Downtown Houston where ladies dressed in skimpy cocktail dresses to impress actor/activist George Clooney, who was in H-Town as a guest speaker for the Brilliant Lecture Series.

True to its’ mission, founder Scott Brogan, has made an effort to bring someone ‘brilliant’ from international leaders, prize-winning authors and actors, to eminent scientists and business leaders to inspire Houstonians. The Conversations with Brilliance series offers Houstonians a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with the world’s greatest minds to inspire leadership in Houston’s youth and their families.

I personally had the honor to meet Mr. Clooney at the VIP Reception hosted prior to the lecture. George Clooney is definitely a ladies man as women hummed around him to either get one glance or a picture taken and why not? He is after all two-times sexiest man alive, funny, good hearted, and did I mention he has a house in Italy? The lecture series was a repartee, a question and answer session conducted by international icon Lynn Wyatt.

George Clooney has devoted his time off-screen to humanitarian causes, including initiating the Satellite Sentinel Project, which combines satellite imagery analysis and field reports with Google’s Map Maker technology to help deter mass atrocities in areas of crisis. A United Nations messenger of peace since 2008, Clooney has been a tireless advocate for resolving the ongoing genocide in Darfur, having spoken to the UN and held fundraisers on behalf of the crisis. In 2007, Clooney (along with fellow Not on Our Watch founder Don Cheadle) was awarded with the Summit Peace Award by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, recognizing his commitment to directing attention to the conflict in Darfur.

The handsome actor managed to keep the audience engaged for a full hour with them begging for more. The audience stayed glued listening to the down to earth highly acclaimed actor, who is creative almost always, loves his dog and wishes he was a bit taller. He shared his passion for politics without being a politician. What stood out was his humbleness and ability to make the listeners believe that he was as normal as the rest of us and that was evident when he hugged the Sudanese refugee onstage.

Clooney regrets on the inability to grasp a language and a musical instrument. All in all we ladies including media were in quite a daze the entire evening as we concluded our date with Clooney singing Happy Birthday – the birthday boy turned 51.

The party later was taken up a notch at the home of Becca Cason Thrash for a black tie dinner at $2500 a plate. About 170 guests had the privilege to shmooze and dine with this sexy man. Also attending the dinner soiree with Clooney were designer Naeem Khan, Dominique Sachse, Lynn Wyatt, Nidhika and Pershant Mehta, and others. “He is so nice and down to earth, great personality, and yes looks a lot younger than in his latest movie,” exclaimed Nidhika.

Watch out for our upcoming video story with George Clooney.