Tuesday, November 09, 1999

All tied up in a world of beauty and sensuality

With 20 years in the tie-design business and over 2,000 designs in inventory, Paolo Pianezza and family and friends launched Baldoria.com on Tuesday, November 9th at the striking 704 Broadway triplex garden lush upstairs heated pool extravaganza loft.

Originally hailing from Lake Como, Italy Paulo collected fabric designs dating back to the Italian renaissance, Paolo and WatersDesign.com worked together on launching a major site with personalization features. All the guests of this night's soiree received a special code to receive a special tie, scarf or foulard.

When you log on you can to baldoria.com you can choose from among 2000 fabric designs of ties, scarves and foulards, then personalize your accessory with a message. Handmade in Como, Italy, this lovely addition to any wardrobe will be shipped to you in 14 days by FedEx.

If that wasn't tempting enough, and the possibility of meeting Madonna, or at least her florist, who designed the flower arrangements. Midway through the evening a slender woman in seagreen bikini top and stretch pants, stretched out for all of us on long white silk scarves secured to the upper floor's railing. Writhing and gyrating she slid up and down the scarves using legs and arms with pelvic thrusts and squeezes, all to seductive music.

Equally stunning, but less revealing, was Nancy Trent of Trent & Co., who was also in a striking seagreen iridescent gown and many fashionable women sporting lovely scarves. After this show stopping, crowd quieting performance, Andrew Brust of Progressive Systems Consulting and I chatted. Downstairs I met up with Lou Giacomoe and Nancy Trent (Trent & Co.), who introduced me to the site's writer, Diana Amsterdam and Paolo. Jeff Heron (CTO of MyUtility.com) was out this night and Tristan Louis told me of Boo.com's recent website launch in 15 countries with 15 currencies accepted and 8 languages– On my way out of the stunning townhouse, I chatted with Tomm Taylor, a producer/reporter with RNN.