…………………….The building of the Hotel Crillon was built in 1758 by Louis XV…….It became the Hotel de Crillon in 1909…….Many many famous people stayed there from Theodore Roosevelt, to Winston Churchill….to more recently….Madonna and Taylor Swift…..When I was designing at Anne Klein, twice a year Donna Karan and I would go to the international fabric show just outside of Paris, but we stayed at the Hotel de Crillon…..It is located at the end of the Champs Elysees at the Place de la Concorde……You may know this location as to where King Louis XVl, and Queen Marie Antoinette were guillotined!…..right in front of the building!! On one of our trips we stayed in a three room suite overlooking the park. It was huge and magnificent….At the same time that we were there another designer, Charles Suppon and two models, Lynn and Tasha where also in Paris, but staying at a different hotel. Charles was also a Coty Award winner, and we threw a joint party at Studio 54 when we were competing against each other for the coveted prize. We won that year, but Charles lost. He did win the following year…..Charles, Tasha and Lynn would meet up with us and go shopping, the Flea Market, one of our favorite places, and all of the boutiques looking for inspiration……We went to lunch and dinner and out to clubs every night…..We were young with a lot of ENERGY!!!!….When we went shopping Donna had a great IDEA!!! Instead of lugging about ALL of the packages of things we purchased we arranged with the shops to deliver it all to the hotel and charge it to our rooms…..The hotel would pay the shops and in the end we would pay the hotel……This we did every day for a week! We had no idea how much we spent! As I was walking into the hotel one evening the night before we were to leave….after going to museums ALL day, while Donna and Richard continued to shop….the concierge stopped me, and in his marvelous French accent said to me……”Monsieur Dell’Olio, I understand you will be leaving us tomorrow for you flight on the CONCORDE”…..yes, the company paid for Donna and I to fly the CONCORDE…..He was extremely polite when he asked me if it was possible to pay the bill now so there would be no rush in the morning……I said, “of course, not a problem”….He translated the bill from francs to dollars and handed it over to me…..HOLEY CRAP…..it was over $35,000.00 US dollars. Between the hotel and everything Donna charged to the hotel the amount was humongous!……I gulped and handed him my credit card…….He said……”No, no, no….we paid in cash, you must pay in cash too!”….I knew we didn’t have anything near that amount of money….so I told him….” excuse me, I’ll be right back”……When I got to the room there were Donna and Richard, lounging about like King Louis and Queen Marie having tea and cookies that must have cost $50.00……I was livid, and they could see right away I wasn’t happy!!! When I told them we had to pay over $35.000.00 in CASH……They were shocked….We barely had $1000.00 left between us……What the hell were we going to do……Donna started saying she would wash dishes and make beds to pay for our bill, knowing this was ALL her fault for her wonderful scheme….I told her I would let her do it, but it would take years to pay it off…..We decided to call NY, and speak to Frank Mori, the president of the company, and ask him to immediately wire the money to the hotel…Donna sitting at a Louis XVl desk, in a throne chair, made the dreaded call! She explained to Frank exactly what happen as I was telling her what to say……We all could hear him SCREAMING OVER THE PHONE as Donna pulled the phone away from her ear….In the end he was going to wire the money! PHEW!!!!…..As this was taking place Linda Fox, a schoolmate of ours, who was now working in Paris, was now in our room, and heard most of the conversation with Frank….She said her French boy friend Jacques was coming to meet us for dinner and he may have a solution. When he arrived he said they wanted us to pay in cash because they had to pay the extra costs for the credit cards we used, and they wanted the money. He said if we explained that we would pay all costs using our credit card he was sure they would accept it…….so……he and I went to the concierge, and Jacques speaking in perfect French explained we were willing to pay all of the extra costs they incurred…….He agreed, and I was able to use my credit card, and Donna didn’t have to wash any dishes!!!…….Of course when we got home Frank wasn’t very pleased with both of us, and we were shaking as we sat before him like two bad children!….When he started to laugh….we knew we were in the clear!…..We never charged purchases to any hotel again!!!
