National Geographic focuses on River Oaks

If you think the pages of National Geographic were filled with stories of unusual tribes engaging in unfamiliar customs in foreign lands, well, the current issue won't prove you wrong: This month, the august journal explores the curious customs of the River Oaks crowd. Between the outrageous parties, the multimillion-dollar divorces, the Versailles replicas and the murders, Houstonians have long known how entertaining the local jet set can be, but River Oaks seems to have fallen out of the national eye recently — maybe because its brand of luxury living has become more common these days.

Mimi Swartz's article "Survival of the Richest" looks at the rush among River Oaks women to succeed society queen Lynn Wyatt — although no one would admit that the thought has even crossed their minds. (There's no real sign that Wyatt intends to abandon the social spotlight, but as Swartz notes, she's not getting any younger.) Elyse Lanier also shows up in the article:

Once a friend told Lanier that by removing a fence in the yard behind her peach-colored mansion, she had made the house visible from the River Oaks golf course. "Everyone can see you," he pointed out. "Exactly," she said. Here, more is always more.

As Swartz told the Chron's Shelby Hodge, the article "[is] cultural anthropology. This is a tribe, with its own particular rites and rituals." At least the River Oaks gals aren't going topless — we hope.