“Scarlet is one of my good luck colors,” said fashion designer Karen Caldwell as she greeted guests during a party to celebrate the debut of The Scarlet Huntington on Nob Hill in San Francisco held on Thursday, May 22. “Tonight,” she continued, “The models’ lips and nails are painted a bold shade of scarlet to bring good luck to the hotel.” That evening, the Bay Area-based designer showed six looks from her eponymous label, Karen Caldwell Design, as part of the hotel’s opening night events. The famed boutique hotel recently underwent a $15 million renovation and just reopened for reservations this month.

Caldwell said her elegant designs that have a strong sartorial following among modern day screen sirens including Jessica Chastain, Amanda Seyfried, Sofía Vergara and Kristin Davis are inspired by Old Hollywood. “I just love dressing women,” said Caldwell. “I watch these old films, Citizen Kane, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?, and The Women, with classic beauties like Rita Hayworth, Veronica Lake, and Sophia Loren, and think ‘What would I make for them?'” The designer said her love of Hollywood glamour began at an early age when she would visit her grandmother who worked in the Hollywood Hills. “She was a choreographer for the Ziegfeld Follies,” said Caldwell “My first introduction to fashion was through the hand-me-downs she would bring home from the costume department.”

As models wearing Caldwell’s gowns walked through the hotel lobby, she explained her design philosophy. “Every woman’s dress should always have a great neckline, and a great color,” Caldwell said. After a model dressed in the finale look for the evening appeared in a stunning red gown, Caldwell said she was elated to celebrate the hotel’s reopening for personal reasons. “My husband actually proposed to me at a little table back there in the [Big 4] restaurant,” she said, “So the hotel has always had special meaning for me and my family.”

By Jennifer McCullum

Pictured: Karen Caldwell at The Scarlet Huntington Hotel in San Francisco.
Photo by Drew Altizer Photography

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