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26 Anne Lee Phillips takes tea with an icon, and Jessica Phifer tours her through the Menil. Photography Jay Tovar. T he queen of British cool Stella McCartney breezed into town to host — what else?— a tea party in her new River Oaks District boutique benefitting Menil Contemporaries Fund, along with chairs Terri Havens, Jessica Phifer (she, the Menil Contemporaries chair), and PaperCity style editor at large Francine Ballard. The crowd con- vened après tea at Terri and John Havens' John Staub-designed lime- stone château — and its 19th-cen- tury French chapel — for cocktails and seated dinner with the prog- eny of rock royalty (she's Paul McCartney's daughter) who has forged her own path in fashion. Earlier in the day, Phifer arranged a visit to The Menil Collection campus with McCartney. "She requested to meet at the Rothko Chapel. So there I stood, in my Stella creepers, when she walked up," says Phifer. "She could not have been more cool. She had been dying to see the chapel for years. There was no getting her out of there, even though we had limited time — she was stunned by the space. Next up: the Cy Twombly Gallery, she took selfi es in front of the most epic piece, Say Goodbye Catullus, to the Shores of Asia Minor. It was dangerously close to the timing of her store event, but McCartney was determined to see the Philip Johnson-designed Menil House once she learned the interiors were designed by Charles James, w hom she came to love when she studied at Central Saint Martins." MCCARTNEY'S MATES Stella McCartney U.S. prez Ida Simonsen, CMO Stephane Jasper, retail director Cat Li, and Cortney Guebara; Lynn Wyatt, Holly Waltrip Long, Layla Salek, Eleanor Gilbane, Janet Hobby, Joi Maria Probus, Haydeh Davoudi, and Elizabeth Satel Young. Dining Chez Havens: Becca Cason Thrash, Melissa Mithoff, Stephanie Cockrell, Elisabeth McCabe, Estela Cockrell, Maggie Nicholson, Greggory Burk, Sima Ladjevardian, Laura Arnold, and Blakely Griggs. STELLA'S TWO-STEP Chair Francine Ballard, Stella McCartney, host/chair Terri Havens Chair Jessica Phifer Elisabeth McCabe Elizabeth Satel Young Maggie Nicholson, Estela Cockrell Nancy Mathé Melicia Tjoa Cat Li Sima Ladjevardian Hilda Curran Stella McCartney Erin Florescu Melissa Mithoff Becca Cason Thrash Chris Goins Elizabeth Moore Galtney Holly Waltrip Long Layla Salek