Feature: Ready for Their Close-Ups: Behind-the-Scenes With Phillys Socialites
ON A WET, miserable night in late September, Boyds clothing store on Chestnut Street is bright and gleaming — and bursting at its designer seams with men in pocket squares and their impeccable dates. No matter that the storm raging on the other side of the storefront has turned hairdos everywhere else into cotton-candy frizz; inside, light from the chandeliers bounces off silken blowouts. The occasion is Boyds’ yearly -Italian-themed La Bella Vita fete, -celebrating — literally — the beautiful life, and many of the people who live it are here.
The hostess for the evening, Nicole Cashman — founder and owner of Cashman & Associates PR firm, and this year’s co-chair of Rittenhouse’s Ball on the Square — is smack-dab at the center of the city’s social scene, and a frequent face on Philly Chit Chat. It’s hard — impossible, really — to separate her social persona from her 10-year-old PR outfit, known for glamorous clients and more glamorous events. She’s a perfect, stilettoed blend of decorous host and drill sergeant.
As often as twice weekly, Cashman gets her long black hair blown out in preparation for the four to seven events she’ll work or attend that week. She’s involved with more charities than she can name, and has counted Starr Restaurants, Comcast and the Greater Philadelphia Film Office as clients. She is, at 37, known to restaurant hostesses and bar owners all over the city, and also to the Mayor and the Governor and Jen Utley — a pal.
“I’m no socialite,” she says. “In fact, socialite is a nothing word. It’s like saying you’re the popular kid at school. It’s sort of silly. I mean, there are a lot of really fun, outgoing, smart, exciting people in Philly these days, which is — without question — a welcome change from the sort of stodgy, provincial foundation of this city. But if people want to tag that as socialite, that whole young, energetic, ambitious scene that’s frequently photographed, well … ” She raises pale, slender arms, the universal gesture for What are you going to do?
She has, she admits, “transcended PR,” but she thinks of herself as a connector, rather than as the most publicized publicist in town. (In fact, she’s both.) Yes, she may be photographed at one event, sip cocktails named for her at another, and be asked to be the face of certain parties around town, but in the end, she says, publicity for her clients is almost always the end to her means. At Boyds, she marches from guest to guest, Louboutins clicking like a metronome against the marble. By the time the night is through, she’ll have kissed the cheeks of most of the 700 people here.
Of course, in attendance is Nicole’s friend Sabrina, who arrives with her husband and Kristen Foote. La Bella Vita, Sabrina says, is a favorite event — not quite the Academy Ball or the Ball on the Square, but still, she wouldn’t miss it. Colabelli and O’Dorisio, too, wander among mannequins in Lanvin dresses and Brioni sport coats, as does Dillon, pausing to snap his photos.
