Ms. Ronson, 30, was wearing a baggy, purple-plaid flannel shirt, her tousled locks pulled back in a nylon-covered elastic band, and looking more like a Seattle barista than the member of a family that collectively got 422 McMullan credits in 2007 alone. “My mother, when we grew up, she kind of said yes to everything,” she said, recalling Ms. Dexter-Jones’ once-breathless social agenda. “And then you get to a point where you don’t really have a life of your own; it sometimes becomes more about the party and the event than the actual cause.”
Ms. Ronson would prefer not to plan and attend extravagant parties in support of her two pet causes, the Nest Foundation, which combats the sexual exploitation of children, and the Humane Society; she’d rather do things like donate products, or use faux fur in her fashion collections (she had brought a swatch of it).
“I have a friend who calls it the retail mafia,” said fellow fauxcialite and aspiring actress Byrdie Bell, 22, regarding lines like Ms. Ronson’s. She mentioned Lola, a “lifestyle brand” started by a few Southampton natives and favored by fauxcialites Alexandra Richards, daughter of Rolling Stones rocker Keith, and Devon Aoki, daughter of Benihana founder Hiroaki. Chrissie Miller, the daughter of celebrity astrologist and Internet entrepreneur Susan Miller, has a line called Sophomore. Lucy Sykes Rellie, the daughter of an English aristocrat and the twin sister of Vogue scribe Plum, designs a line of luxe children’s clothes. And of course there is Tinsley Mortimer and her line of handbags for Samantha Thavasa.
Not to suggest that wealthy young women are abandoning charities in droves to become fashion designers, but …
Ms. Hilfiger, for one, sees such individual endeavors as a point of personal pride. “You have to prove yourself to the world,” she said. “It’s like, this [collection for Izzy Gold] better be fuckin’ perfect. It’s my name on the line, and I’ve gotta prove to other people that I can do it and that I’m serious about it.”
Asked how she would respond if someone were to accuse her of having an easy life, Ms. Hilfiger sat erect, narrowed her gaze and said: “If they did, I would just be like, ‘Come with me for a day and see if you could do it!’
“I just feel that I’m a very driven, motivated person,” Ms. Hilfiger said of her work ethic, pausing to gaze in the direction of a spotlight mounted near a wall of windows. “If I’m stagnant for a certain amount of time, I tend to not feel happy. I don’t feel like myself. There’s so much creative energy in me.”
