A PEARL IN THE SOCIALITE SET

1: Gilda Kirkpatrick 2: Amanda Hotchin 3: Roxane Horton 4: Gretchen Hawkesby 5: Annabel Fay 6: Pearl Going. Image courtesy of Herald on Sunday SPY.

The girl on everyone's lips at the moment is gorgeous young socialite Pearl Going (pictured above - far right). She's the It girl du jour. The hottest property on the party circuit. And she's determined to leave her mark.
She texts me - would I like to meet. I'm curious, I've heard a lot about Ms Going, rumours she had dated Richie McCaw, sailed with Richard Branson, is chums with NYC society queen Tinsley Mortimer. The answers, I learn later, are no to the Richies, but yes, she is friends with the Tinz.
We agree to Ponsonby cafe Bambina. She arrives bearing a Starbucks flask of piping hot coffee. I'd have thought bringing your own coffee to a coffee house is a big no-no in Socialite Cafe etiquette.
I like her immediately. She's whippet-thin with piercing blue eyes. Fashion is her game, and like Park Avenue princess Tinsley, Going has her own handbag line. They're made from biodegradable pleather, she tells me.
And then there's the designer jeans collection - but they're only sold in LA, she says. They're too expensive for this market. Come Fashion Week in September, Going will be behind the Eco Show, a runway show dedicated to ethical fashion. She's signing up designers now to create specific pieces.
Pearl's a socialite with a purpose - an oxymoron, you ask? Apparently not. Roxane Horton (No. 3 in the Spy socialite ranking) heads the Friends of the Liggins Institute; Annabel Fay is a successful singer-songwriter paving the way for female musos.