The Crowd:

Educated and sophisticated taste is alive and well on the Orange Coast. They call themselves the Decorative Arts Society, a group of ladies and gentlemen with a common interest in art, architecture, interior design, landscape design and the decorative arts in general, including all aspects of furniture, fabrics, accessories, porcelains and crafts.

Their passion includes exploration of the history of design and the evolution of style over centuries of human existence. Each year the society sponsors a lecture series in Newport Beach, and on the roster are the most influential names in design.

This week the internationally acclaimed Carleton Varney, head of the New York-based Dorothy Draper Co., jetted into town to address the crowd on his unique and formidable career, which has made him a confidant of heads of state, movie stars, industrialists, raconteurs and rogues.

Following tradition, the society greeted their distinguished visitor with a pre-lecture cocktail reception at the Lido Isle residence of David Sheffner and his accomplished art collector and private art dealer wife, Nancy. The reception and event, led by society chairwoman Kay Evans, a chic and vivacious blonde with a gracious smile, welcomed patrons and donors arriving at the Sheffner residence for a warm and intimate evening with Varney and his associate, Brinsley Matthews, who had arrived for a brief international stopover before heading to Dallas for a meeting with Caroline Hunt, chairwoman of Rosewood Hotels.

The gathering welcomed Mary Anna Jeppe and her husband, Arthur, talented Newport decorator and hostess Marion Palley and investment guru husband, Roger Palley, Cecilia and Bruce Nott, Jerry Harrington, one of Newport’s most sophisticated couples in the world of design, Barbara and Jim Glabman, Carol Steele, Bonnie McClellan, Ann Dennis, Hyla Bertea, Ida Middlesworth, Elena Donavan, Susan Champion, Marion Hartwich, and the elegant Margaret Larkin.