Evidence that this is no ordinary tea party appears in the elevator -- in the form of a Four Seasons server carrying a tray of tea. We are both headed for Sara Waxman's apartment, in a building right next to the hotel.
The petite Waxman opens the door, her blond hair and red lipstick perfectly in place. She waves us into her living room, its coffee table stacked with elegant tea snacks. But we're not here for the Devon cream and dainty sandwiches. Waxman has discovered her new favourite jeweller and has decided to share.
Designer Giuseppe Sorgentone and brother-in-law Antonio Silva have set up a discreet "shop" in a bay window. They are next to a table laden with dark blue velvet boxes. There are ruby, diamond and sapphire rings. Over-the-top necklaces and bracelets are brought out one after the other.
These are serious jewels, designed in Toronto and created in Valenza, Italy. There is no cash register. Sales will happen later, by appointment only. If this is the new Tupperware party, there is only the faintest whiff of commerce about it.
"I wore Sorgentone jewellery all through the film festival and people kept asking me where I bought it," Waxman says. "So I decided to introduce Giuseppe to my friends."
She has assembled a chic society crowd that knows a thing or two about expensive rocks, including Trudy Bundy, Catherine Nugent, Carole Grafstein, Lynda Prince, Carol Rapp and Judy Wells. Take out this room and Toronto's charity gala circuit would short out.
To whet their palate, Waxman is wearing large-scale earrings, a tied necklace and a bracelet made of onyx laid in 18-karat gold "threads." The set would retail for about $9,000.
Waxman's interest in buying jewellery for herself is relatively new. "I used to say . . . only a man should buy jewellery for a woman," she says, wistfully referring to her late husband, Al Waxman. "But now I don't think that any more."
Janese Kane, like most of the women here today, knows her jewels and has no problem shopping for herself. "Where did you get the rubies?" she says, trying on a serious pinky-red ruby ring.
"Burma. They're called sangue di piccione or 'blood of bird,' " Sorgentone says.
There's much discussion of jewellery store chains, such as Tiffany. "We don't want to appeal to the masses," Sorgentone says, dryly. "We only make one or two of each design. They will be estate pieces."
Silva pulls out a gorgeous diamond necklace, a ladder-like design worn falling down the breast or between the shoulder blades. "A woman doesn't need clothes with this," he says to one guest.
"Sounds good," her male companion says.
Bundy peeks at the rings sitting in their rows of boxes. "It's too tempting. This one looks like Lady Di's engagement ring," she says.
But this is not a ravenously shopaholic afternoon. When I ask Bundy about a shiny nugget, her own, on one hand, she pulls me aside.
"Swarovski crystal," she says, sotto voce.