Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

CELEBRITY SIGHTINGS:

Ali Landry: From Doritos to little girl dresses

Brunette stunner’s new children’s clothes line ‘not a flash in the pan’

Ali Landry

AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

Ali Landry was in Las Vegas last week to promote her new children’s line of clothing. Above, she arrives at the American Music Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday, Nov. 23, 2008.

Beyond the Sun

Ali Landry has gone from Doritos to diapers, and from diapers to dresses.

The model/actress/former pageant queen was in Las Vegas last week promoting the latter – a line of pretty, pastel-hued dresses for baby girls – at the ABC Kids Expo.

While she hopes to build her line, Belle Parish, into an all-encompassing lifestyle brand that would rival Martha Stewart, Landry’s has a way to go before achieving domestic diva status.

Today, Landry is still best known as either Miss America 1996 or “the Doritos girl,” depending on who you’re talking to.

Twelve years after winning the coveted crown and more than a decade after millions saw that Superbowl XXXII commercial, the brunette stunner still loves the chips – even though she hasn’t received an endorsement check from Frito-Lay in years.

“I grew up on Doritos,” she said. “In Louisiana, it was, like, my favorite chip. … They had a smoky red hot barbeque, which is a little spicy and because I’m from Louisiana, I like a little flavor in it.”

While and her husband, director Alejandro Monteverde, don’t live in Louisiana these days, Landry still keeps the spicy, cheesy chips on hand in their Los Angeles home. “I do a ham sandwich and I put – I know it’s gross – but I put the Doritos on my sandwich. That’s sort of my little thing.”

The 36-year-old giggled as she admitted her unsophisticated snack secret.

“It’s a little crunch with the bread and the protein,” she explained, defending the sandwich. “It’s a real happy meal.”

The lip service doesn’t come as a result of any lingering endorsement deal.

“They don’t pay me anymore,” she laughed. “People think, ‘You must have a lifetime supply,’ (but) I don’t think I even got a bag for free.”

Landry said she is always well-fed when she comes to Las Vegas.

“I’m not a gambler but I love the entertainment and I love the restaurants and we’re at a different restaurant every night,” she said.

She said Lavo is her current favorite.

“I’m seriously craving the Kobe beef meatball appetizer and the fried Oreos that you dip in the vanilla sauce,” she said last week, as long day at the convention center neared its close.

Unlike other Hollywood stars, whose involvement in their namesake lines involves little more than a photoshoot and the cashing of subsequent royalty checks, Landry has immersed herself at every step of the Belle Parish process. She was there to set up the Belle Parish booth, she was there to tear it down, and she was there, chatting up potential buyers throughout the convention.

“People are kind of surprised when they see me here,” Landry said. “They’re like, ‘What are you doing here?’ and I say, ‘What do you mean? I have a line…’ and they’re all, ‘Yeah, but what are you doing here?’”

Many are surprised when the learn how dedicated Landry is to Belle Parish, and how grassroots the endeavor actually is.

“It is a passion, it’s not just a flash in the pan for me,” she said.

“Most of the (Belle Parish) designs are my mother’s original designs; I remade them for our collection,” Landry said. “It’s not something that I just want to throw out a line out there just for one season and just be done with it.”

With that in mind, she hopes both her name and Belle Parish will eventually grow to become synonymous with children’s clothing and accent pieces instead of Doritos.

“We will do home décor and we will do the bedding … everything across the board, like a Martha Stewart or Kathy Ireland,” Landry said.

Before that happens, however, Landry and her business partner, former Washington, D.C.-based broadcast journalist, Annie Kate, have a lot of work to do.

“A lot of people would call this special occasion (wear),” Landry acknowledged, scanning the collection of perfect-looking little, mostly white and pink dresses.

“A lot of people say, ‘I couldn’t buy white because, then they’re just going to get something on it.’ Well, they’re going to get something on pink, and they’re going to get something on green, it’s the exact same thing – I mean, it’s going to show just as much,” she said. “You just stick it in the washing machine. … When you get outside of the south, this is dressing up for kids, but where we grew up, this is how you dress your kid.”

“When you go to the grocery store in the South, they have a bow and a dress on, and the shoes, but that’s not how it is everywhere. That’s not how it is at all in L.A.,” she said.

As such, she dresses her two-year-old daughter a little differently.

“Estella is in a dress and a bonnet and probably the only kid in Los Angeles in a bonnet,” she said. “I refuse to let her do Hannah Montana and jeans and, like, T-shits. I just can’t do it. She doesn’t own a pair of jeans.”

She said that while her friends “thought that they were going to dress their kids very hip and cool,” she has “converted” them. “They’re all little southern babies now,” Landry boasted proudly.

Landry is an effective saleswoman. After a few days working the ABC crowd, she and Kate were “overwhelmed” by the response their 16-piece line received at the children’s wear trade show.

Kate said the pilgrimage to ABC was the latest leg of what has been a whirlwind few months for the two Southern-born belles.

“We started a company, designed a line, found a manufacturer, did the marketing, made bedding … started a Web site, had a photoshoot, did press ... it has been insane,” she rattled off before finally stopping to breathe.

“We did it so fast because we really wanted to make it to the show,” she said.

“It’s happening so fast,” Landry admitted, shaking her head in disbelief. “It’s a little overwhelming.”

While they say you have to learn to crawl before you can walk, and walk before you can run, the women have been in a full-out sprint since starting their company in late June.

They have been learning every hasty step of the way.

“I don’t pretend to know it all,” Landry shrugged. “Our buyers come in and they’re helping us write our orders. I think they kind of think it’s charming.”

While Landry is a woman of many talents, sewing is not one of her strong points.

“I’ve never sewn,” she said, flatly.

What she lacks in needlepoint know-how is quickly compensated for with yet another million-dollar smile and a cute story drawn from her childhood.

“Instead of taking home ec in school, I was the one who took industrial arts and built furniture,” she smiled.

Older and wiser, the entrepreneurial Lauder now realizes those home economics classes would have come in handy.

“Now that I’m doing this … I wish I had (learned) to at least cut out a pattern or something,” she said, still smiling sweetly.

Like the development of the dresses themselves, Landry said Belle Parish’s ABC debut was a “family affair.”

“My parents flew in from Louisiana and helped me set up,” she said, noting her husband and two-year-old daughter also came to lend their support.

She smiled once again as she recalled what was apparently a not-so-enjoyable afternoon in the hot south hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

“They had no air conditioning (on),” she said, eyes widening. “My mother was in a constant hot flash all day long, it was probably 110 (degrees) in here all day long. We were sweating from every crevice of our bodies, it was terrible.”

She stressed the last word of the sentence, saying it slowly to emphasize just how awful it was – yet her smile never faded from her face.

“That was when people were coming up, ‘Can we take a picture?’” she laughed.

Landry is well-aware of how her celebrity status helps her start-up.

“We really have an edge and it’s because it’s of the other jobs,” Landry acknowledged. “We’re in three magazines now, we have two covers.”

Their line has been featured in People, and graced the cover of both Child Style and The Hot Moms Club’s New Moms Handbook.

“We’re not even in stores,” Kate said.

Landry nodded in agreement, adding, “We don’t even start selling until January.”

While modeling and acting has taken a back seat to Belle Parish, Landry plans to continue to work in show business, which will only help her other business.

“When I do the other stuff, it only enhances this stuff,” she said, gesturing to the array of pastel-hued dresses adorning the Belle Parish booth at ABC. “Because of the other stuff, we have an edge over a lot of exhibitors here.”

And she has been busy with that so-called “other stuff.”

Landry hosted a party at Blush during ABC and, as soon as the convention was over, packed up and drove back to LA, where she set upon processing orders amidst the craziness of the Emmy Awards.

Then she was back to Vegas again this week, first for Blush’s two-year anniversary party on Tuesday, then a Tony Bennett charity benefit at Tao on Thursday.

She was asked to attend the grand opening for Emeril Lagasse’s new restaurant, Stadium, but had to say enough was enough.

Landry said she and Monteverde would have cancelled Thursday’s appearance, had it not been for charity. But the couple came out to support the Marty Hennessy Jr. Tennis Foundation and celebrate alongside their good friend, Tony Bennett.

From there, though, it was straight back to L.A. first thing Friday morning, where Belle Parish and her baby were waiting for her.

While Landry obviously loves watching and working as Belle Parish grows, it is equally obvious that watching something else grow takes priority.

Or, more specifically, someone.

While Belle Parish business is a big reason she is spending most of her time in L.A., as she left the Big Heart Award Dinner on Thursday, business was the furthest thing from her mind.

“I’ve got to be home,” she said. “I’ve got to be with my baby.”

Melissa Arseniuk writes about Las Vegas entertainment and celebrity events. She can be reached at 702-948-7823 or by e-mail at [email protected].

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