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24 BLINDED BY THE LIGHT Don Mafrige Jr. Ford Hubbard Shelby Hodge, Mike McClure Jason & Lindley Arnoldy Gillian Sarofim Valerie Fuller Catherine Brooks Monsour Taghdisi Becca Cason Thrash Christine Falgout Bill Gutknecht Luvi Wheelock Francine Ballard Marc & Duyen Nguyen, Chloe Nguyen, Misha Nguyen Claudia Ayala, John Thrash, Joanne King Herring, Gregg Harrison Greg Fourticq, Annie Amante, Tami Diaz, Neal Hamil London by De Beers High Jewellery Thames Path necklace Sidonie Robert-Degove DE BEERS DAZZLES WITH $10 MILLION IN DIAMONDS. Shelby Hodge takes it all in. Photography Killy. S even security guards, eight suites of De Beers diamonds, $10 million in value, and 100 dazzled guests … The cham- pagne-fueled fête in the Memorial home of John and Becca Cason Thrash glit- tered. So important was this gathering that De Beers' managing director of Europe and the United States, Sidonie Robert-Degove, arrived for the occasion from headquarters in London. The High Jewellery suites included De Beer's lat- est collection, London by De Beers, which Robert- Degove describes as fluid and emblematic: "London is our muse for this collection as it follows along the path of the Thames." The collection was introduced last spring during Paris couture week, then made a splash in New York in December with the opening of De Beers' new flagship, a two-story townhouse on Madison Avenue. Hostess Cason Thrash, in black Dior, popped on a stunning Mosaic necklace for the evening. "I'm Cinderella for the night," she said. "And at 9:30, it all goes back." In the interim, she welcomed guests, pointing them to Ruinart champagne and hors d'oeuvres from A Fare Extraordinaire — and, of course, those diamonds blinking madly in the candlelight. SEEN: Jessica Rossman and Gordon Bethune, Joanne King Herring, Christine Falgout, Francine Ballard, Luvi Wheelock, Catherine and Dr. Cenk Ozdogan, Laura Fondren, Lindley and Jason Arnoldy, Phoebe Tudor, Greg Fourticq, Ford Hubbard, Fay and Salim Zakhem, Alan and Luba Bigman, gorgeous sisters Misha Nguyen and Anais Nguyen, Lucinda and Javier Loya, Monsour Taghdisi, Leigh Smith, Valerie Fuller, and Gillian Sarofim, Carmina Zamorano, De Beers Houston director Mike McClure, Pooja Johari (in from De Beers New York), and Moët Hennessy USA's Rhonda McDonald.