Ione Skye

LOS ANGELES--Last night, designer Charlotte Ronson hosted a dinner, sponsored by Belvedere Vodka, for her west coast posse (sis Samantha, mom Ann Dexter-Jones and stepdad Mick Jones, Nicky Hilton, Ashlee Simpson and husband Pete Wentz, Ione Skye and Mindy Kaling included) while her hometown of NYC was hit with a snowstorm. Guests gathered around communal tables at Hollywood hotspot Eveleigh (an eatery that shares its Aussie owners with NYC’s Kingswood) and munched on calamari, butter lettuce salad and braised beef among other dishes, while Charlotte made the rounds. Despite being in the middle of designing both her namesake collection (Fall 2011) and diffusion line "I Heart Ronson" for JCPenney, the rock ‘n roll scion seemed visibly relaxed. The collaboration with JC Penney’s, she pointed out, is in fact the least of her worries. “It’s really fun because they know their customer so well. You get to really design into it. We do our few pieces, and it’s fun that the line is accessible and affordable. With them you just focus on the design. We do the full techpack but they do all of the production. So, I get to focus on the creative, which is so rare. It’s the perfect partnership.” And how does it feel to have her name exposed to such a wide, mass market audience?