‘Chevy Chic’ shows ‘edge’

Bloomingdale’s pulled out the stops on behalf of “Chevy Chic,” the motto for Tuesday’s opening celebration of the retail chain’s latest store, on Wisconsin Avenue in Chevy Chase. All three levels of the black-and-white-themed interior were swarmed with guests sampling Design Cuisine cocktail fare and quaffing Vieuve Cliquot from France and Snow Queen vodka from Kazakhstan — on behalf of “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Fashion.”

“Like the New York flagship store but brighter and lighter” was the most frequently heard comment about “Bloomie’s” new digs. After greeting real estate and baseball mogul Ted Lerner, company Chairman and CEO Michael Gould took time to explain why the event was teamed with a charitable cause: the very high-profile Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, due to receive 10 percent of proceeds from the evening’s sales as well as all proceeds from ticket sales ($125 and $250). “It’s a great organization, and everyone needs awareness,” Mr. Gould said, going on to list other openings in the store’s history that were linked to local nonprofit groups.

The occasion was something of a reunion for Ann Stock, a Kennedy Center vice president who came to Washington to work for Bloomingdale’s in 1982 and was meeting up with former regional fashion director Pat Thompson. Loyal to the core, she already had made a purchase to put into the store’s legendary Big Brown Bag. “I’m still working,” she joked as she took a guest to meet Jack Hruska, Bloomingdale’s director of creative services, the man behind the upscale design. “It has the flavors of the New York store,” he noted. Definitely a city store with “edge” all over its shiny interior.