A very hot day in New York. Heat. Heat on the pavement, on the buildings and in the thick breezes that blow along the East River. Amazing heat.
I went down to Michael’s for lunch for the first time in several days. It was uncharacteristically quiet with several empty tables – unheard of in a Michael’s lunch time. Of course it was cool inside and beautifully decorated with massive bouquets of what look like rhododendron branches. The man with the shoes, George Malkemus, who owns the Manolo Blahnik USA, was lunching with the Lady of Shoes (and fashion) Candy Pratts Price, on one side. On the other Robbie Browne the mega-real estate broker was lunching with his goddaughter and her mother, in from Los Angeles. And in the bay there were about twelve women and two men celebrating the birthday of Sherrie Rollins – the men being her husband Ed and Robert Zimmerman. Among the women I spotted were Jolie Hunt, Lyn Paulsin, Debbie Grubman.
The heat in the city at this intensity takes over and monopolizes conversation and casts its influence on the way we look at things. So the table subjects were not light, nor particularly upbeat. Like: the blind item you read here a few days ago about the elderly woman who’d lost most if not all of her fortune to the workings of her trusted friend and accountant. My lunch partner told me about yet another woman of a certain age, a very prominent New York socialite, thrice married, once titled, once mistress of a tycoon, now a widow of a very rich man – richer than the first story – who is under the spell of very attentive young man “overseeing” her money. Hundreds of millions in this case.
There were two special cocktail parties last night. Up at the Neue Galerie, Evelyn and Leonard Lauder hosted an engagement party for Tommy Hilfiger and his fiancée, Dee Ocleppo. The Neue Galerie, on 86th and Fifth, if you didn’t know, was started by Mr. Lauder’s brother Ronald and the late art dealer Serge Sabarsky.
The brick and limestone mansion is a grand place for an engagement party for a fashion tycoon. It was built in 1914 by Carrere and Hastings for William Starr Miller. It was also the last home of Grace Wilson Vanderbilt (Mrs. Cornellius Jr.) from 1943 until her death ten years later.
There was a big crowd last night of social and business friends of Mr. Hilfiger and the Lauders including Donald and Susan Newhouse, Gayle King, various Lauders including William and his wife Karen, and his cousin Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer, Clive Davis, Daria and Larry Leeds, Sessa and Richard Johnson, Russell Simmons, Daniel Benedict and Andrew Saffir, Patrick McMullan, Bettina Zilkha, Diana Picasso.
The Lauders and Mr. Hilfiger also have a strong business connection as Estee Lauder distributes the Hilfiger fragrances.
The couple are planning to marry on August 8th. When I asked Mr. Hilfiger the date, he said: “eight eight eight.”
The champagne was flowing and at seven-fifteen in the upstairs gallery where the famous Klimt for which Ronald Lauder paid $135 million is hung, there was an official toast to the couple. It was neither your run of the mill nor a traditional engagement party. Grown-ups as newlyweds, it was a coming together of business and social associations and had a very executive feel.
Mr. Hilfiger was the most famous face in the room, and almost iconically famous it is. The betrothed couple were dressed the part and looked as if they were beating the heat of the day – he in a well-tailored grey suit and she in a cool looking white lace cotton dress. Looking just a smidge older than the famous image, he still looks boyish and has kept his boyish figure. His bride-to-be looks like a Sunkist baby from either Florida or Southern California. Together they exude 21st century Americana just like the man’s famous image: boy next door as tycoon.
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