madame du barry

L'Wren Scott and the Return of du Barry Red

In a brief but exclusive interview with Luxist, designer L'Wren Scott, Mick Jagger's gal pal, describes her single-handed revival of a scarlet luxe with a history.

Both the style and charm of Madame du Barry, who, like Marie Antoinette met the guillotine for her extravagance, have been significantly underappreciated historically. Wearing her own dreamy spring collection at a Haiti benefit, press-shy designer L'Wren Scott, model turned stylist and now Mick Jagger's girlfriend, sets the record straight.

Versailles, Sunday, 22 April, 1769, Presentation of Madame du Barry at Court

"Richelieu had ordered a dress fit for a queen with enormous panniers of silver and gold cloth bespattered with diamonds and a train of inordinate length. . . . The extraordinary thing about Jeanne du Barry was that, for all her sordid past, she still managed to look as innocent as any virgin, with a skin so delicate it hardly required any rouge, teeth of dazzling whiteness in a small, naturally scarlet mouth, blue, yes, made all the softer by their long dark lashes." Joan Haslip, "The Wages of Beauty"

May 6, 2010 L'Wren Scott, in a nod to Louix XV's famously big-spending mistress, wears du Barry red to a Manhattan benefit for victims of the Haiti earthquake.

RxHaiti was a benefit that counted. On Monday, May 6, a well-populated rooftop cocktail soiree and auction in New York, hosted by Mick Jagger and designer L'Wren Scott, benefited earthquake survivors in need of replacement limbs.

On a sparkling, clear evening atop the 20-story Scholastic building in SoHo, a wrinkly Mick Jagger bounded into the room wearing fresh New Balance running shoes, skinny jeans, a gray blazer with schoolboy dark edging around the lapel, and the characteristic lips and undone coif. In the open air, next to gal pal L'Wren Scott, who towers a head taller, Jagger brandished a Sharpie to sign the glossy keyboard cover of a screaming red baby grand being auctioned to raise funds for prosthetic limbs. A vast glass atrium, also on the roof, housed further auction items, including guitars signed by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Bono. A handler correctly mentioned to actress Rachel Weisz that her buddy Naomi Watts would turn up at any moment. "I love charities that focus on something very specific," Weisz told Luxist.

Tags: fashion, lwren scott, madame du barry, marie antoinette, mick jagger, naomi watts, new york city, rachel weisz, rx haiti, style, versailles