 |
 Flights of Fancy
 |
| Magical sunset over the Hudson River. 8:40 PM. Photo: JH. |
June 11, 2010. It was cloudy yesterday in New York, promising rain. And then mid-to-late afternoon, somewhere between three and four it came down in torrents. A lot of people got caught in it.
At noontime I went down to the new Creed store on 67th and Madison, right on the northwest corner. It’s a perfect little white, chrome and mirrored glass jewel of a showcase for the Creed fragrances.
I was meeting Erwin Creed, who is the heir-apparent of a family business that has been in existence since 1760. Their first customer was none other than King George III – the king the American colonists rebelled against in the American Revolution. Royal English Leather was the name of the scent created for the king. Still is. |
| Fiorentina, the fragrance created by Creed for Empress Eugenie in mid-19th century. |
Royal English Leather, the first fragrance created by Creed in 1760 for King George III of England. |
| An array of Creed Fragrance. |
| In this tiny bottle, an essence of Iris. |
Spice and Wood, a new fragrance debuting in the autumn. |
In those days before “sanitary,” even kings needed fragrances to ward off the results of such lack. The fragrances were first little solid items, like concentrates. A little went a long way. A tiny ball with which the user could dab himself – under one ear then the other; one wrist, then the other. Just enough to make things pleasant for anyone who got too close.
 |
 |
| Erwin Creed with Aurore de Chanaud and Alexia Cheval at Michael's. |
|
James Creed prospered. When King George wore a fragrance/scent, old Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and the other kings and emperors around Europe and Russia wanted that too. Nothing has changed.
Erwin Creed is the 7th generation of the male line of Creeds to be involved in the family business. It has been father-son/father-son since the beginning. The British family is now essentially French. I don’t know how or when that happened. Erwin’s father Olivier is the Master Nose and head of the company. His mother, who is divorced from his father, works in the business in Paris.
It’s a business in that is almost ephemeral in the scheme of things, and yet fragrances have the power to command vanity and are basic to the human condition. Creed, still family owned, is distributed in stores bearing its name as well as department stores throughout the world. They are very excited about the emerging markets of the world because as makers of fine, natural fragrances, the future as a luxury product is very bright. The perfumes are manufactured in Fountainebleau, about 35 miles outside of Paris.
After the lesson in the fragrance business, we adjourned to Michael’s where we were met up briefly by Erwin’s girlfriend Aurore de Chanaud and her friend Alexia Cheval, who came along with him on this business trip to New York. The girls were on their way to the Meatpacking for shopping. Aurore has an online Children’s clothing business back in France (www.marucho.fr) |
 |
Last night after the rains came and went, the Wildlife Conservation Society held its annual Spring Gala – this year titled “Flights of Fancy” and dedicated to the birds. This is definitely the last of the big charity galas of the annual spring season. In another week or two many of those who attended will be moving themselves east or north for most if not all of the summer.
This gala is always held at the Central Park Zoo with cocktails around the seal pool, and before cocktails are over we get a show. I may be imagining it but it seems as if the seals love hamming it up, as they charm and amuse. It was still daylight and the sky above at sundown was a bright blue crowded with the most magnificent grey and silver storm clouds separating.
The décor on the terraces around the pool were also set up for the after-party, a junior party, which begins around 9:30 or 10. That’s when the younger set – 20-something congregate for dancing and drinks. And the season begins. In New York that means all of these people are going to be seeing a lot of each other and all their friends. |
| The invite for last night's “Flights of Fancy," the Wildlife Conservation Society's annual Spring Gala. |
A floral swan decoration at last night's gala in the Central Park Zoo. |
The main dinner is black tie. This one is coat and tie. Young New Yorkers on a beautiful summer night in Central Park. DJ Cassidy was playing a lot of 70s rock which is highly stimulates the memory for these ears and a lot of others who now look like they’re too old to be rockers. Ahh, but they/we are!
I was talking to an NYSD reader who introduced herself named Bianca Kawecki when the BeeGees were singing “More Than A Woman.” I was so distracted by the song that I asked if she knew of the BeeGees. Born several years after the sensation of “Saturday Night Fever” at that moment, she’d “heard” about it. The song still seems new to me because I can still recall the night I saw “Saturday Night Fever” with a group of friends after which we were so psyched we went right home and partied for the rest of the night. With the BeeGees on the record player of course. In this context last night, talking to Bianca, born several years after the sensation, it now seemed like vintage. |
 |
The WCS honored Jonathan Fanton and Art Ortenberg. Mr. Fanton is the former president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (1999-2009) and before that he was president of the New School University. When he was with the MacArthur Foundation took the opportunity to support work on the role of climate change in conservation.
Mr. Ortenberg is an “individual conservationist” and with his late wife and business partner Liz Claiborne he created the Liz Claiborne/Art Ortenberg Foundation in 1989. Their charter was dedication to the survival of wildlife and wildlands, and to the vitality of the human communities to which they are linked.
|
 |
 |
They raised well over a million last night. Co-chairs were Faith and Peter Coolidge, Gillian Hearst Simonds and Christian Simonds, Katharina Otto-Bernstein and Nathan Bernstein, Ashley and Ogden Phipps, and Priscilla and Ward Woods. The Gala Leadership committee was: Sunny and Brad Goldberg, Antonia M. and George J. Grumbach, Jr., Darlene and Brian Heidtke, Terry and Bob Lindsay, Allison Morrow and Jonathan L. Cohen, Mary and Howard Phipps, Jr., Lisa and David Schiff, Virginia and Warren Shwerin, Allison and Leonard Stern, Ann and Thomas Unterberg, Melanie and John Wambold, and Barbara and Donald Zucker.
“Conservation” that most of us find hard to define when pressed. A lot of the aforementioned boldfaced names above have made financial commitments to the cause because they know exactly what it means. |
 |
Conservation basically means: our future, which also includes the animal kingdom and the environment. Life on the planet. Those of us who don’t know much know or care about its relevance are about to get a harsh lesson driven home by what’s now going on in the Gulf of Mexico. Grief won’t be the half of it.
Meanwhile, back at the party. This year was an especially pretty one under those magnificent New York skies. The birds of the theme inspired the colors and the flowers and the table settings as well as the tent names, and the women were in lots of bright colors, like those of our exotic feathered friends. Capped by DJ Cassidy with the BeeGees and the 70s disco taking us back. It was a great evening in New York in June. |
| Carl Bernstein and Muffie Potter Aston boogeying ... |
Enter your email address below to subscribe to NYSD's newsletter. It's free!
|
| Julie Skarratt (Segerstrom) |
Comments? Contact DPC here. |
|
|
|
|
