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The
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 7:15 PM. Photo: JH.
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A
lot of action going on over in Bryant Park where
Fashion Week was in full throttle. I went to the Oscar
de la Renta Show at 2 PM in the big tent.
Hundreds
attending including, of course, the designer’s large coterie
of socialites who often find their elegance in his creations. Miss
Universe was there, as was Donald Trump and Melania Knauss;
as well as the two main fashion magazine editors in New York, Glenda
Bailey from Harper’s Bazaar and Anna
Wintour of Vogue, and the great fashion critic Suzy
Menkes from the International Herald Tribune in
Paris.
Wintour
was, for a few minutes anyway, without her shades, making her slightly
less identifiable. The shades make the diff for Wintour’s apparently
natural repose of her countenance is dour.
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On
the runway at the Oscar show
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Although: I saw
her one day a few weeks ago in Michael’s lunching with her
daughter and contemporaries of her daughter. She was very animated,
laughing, often smiling and clearly just having a good time. The
smile she was smiling was such a charming smile ... just the like
the song. Although that was then and this was now. Nonetheless, let
it be said, in New York, charming smile or dour map, Ms. Wintour
has charisma.
Oscar
de la Renta brings out the reigning social doyennes,
dowagers and divas, as well as the younger set. They sit
across the aisle from one another, separated by a generation
of fashion sensibilities. I saw: Mrs. de la Renta who
always takes a seat in the third or fourth row, along with Elizabeth
Rohatyn, Pat Buckley, Emilia Saint-Amand, Audrey Gruss,
Casey Ribicoff, Jamee Gregory, Allison Stern, Pat Patterson,
Gaetana Enders, Tory Burch, Angela Rich, Stephanie Krieger,
Jo Hallingby, Judy Peabody, Toni Goodale, Mica Ertegun;
the Lauder sisters, Jane (Marsh)
and Aerin (Zinterhofer), Hilary
Dick, Helen Schifter, Alex Kramer, Rena Sindi, Bettina
Zilkha, Pamela Gross, Heather Cohane, Quest’s
style editor, Cricket Burns, Jamie
Lynn Sigler – the photographers went nuts; Stephanie
Seymour, so beautiful, with Hamish Bowles,
Helen O’Hagan, Ashley McDermott, Jennifer Creel,
Dayssi Kanavos, Paul Wilmot, Kenny Lane, and,
of course, the impresario of seating, Oscar’s executive
in charge of sales, Boaz Mazor – to
name just a handful.
The line was pure Oscar: color, glitter, glimmer, elegance, chic,
sexy and Way Up Here. He’s in a class all by himself. The pictures
tell the story. I was in charge of the very temperamental Digital
and it was a very temperamental. That’s my excuse but you’ll
catch the drift anyway. |
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Becca
Casson Thrash
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Boaz
Mazor
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Toni
Goodale and Judy Peabody
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Gaetana
Enders
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Liz
Rohatyn and Casey Ribicoff
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Pat
Patterson
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Karen
and Richard LeFrak
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The
metal duo-canopy by Frank Gehry
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The
big event in New York last night were the “150 Dinners
on the Park” celebrating the 150th anniversary
of the creation of Central Park and benefiting the Central
Park Conservancy. More than 800 attended (at $1000 a seat)
the parties set around the Park – down Fifth, across
Central Park South and up Central Park West, and they raised
more than $1.5 million for the Conservancy.
JH and the Digital and I started out at the Guggenheim where Richard
and Karen LeFrak were hosting a dinner for twenty in one
of the large rooms in the annex, with access to a terrace (I didn’t
know the Gugg had a terrace, but it does) — with a great metal
duo-canopy by Frank Gehry. |
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Brooke
Cohen, Kimberly Rockefeller, Karen LeFrak, Frances Adler,
Mr. Cohen, and Steven Rockefeller
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Suzanne
Cochran with Ken and Robin Joseph
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The
table in the dining room
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From
there we moved down the avenue to the apartment
of Robin and Ken Joseph in what is said to
be the oldest apartment building on Fifth Avenue, designed
by McKim, Mead and White at the beginning of the last century.
The early occupants included several members of the Guggenheim family.
The Josephs were entertaining with Bob and Suzanne
Cochran – one table in the main dining room
and the second in the library.
There were two “park benches” at the Josephs. These are
special benches decorated by a variety of artists and creative New
Yorkers. They’re going to be on exhibit in Chelsea until they’re
auctioned off, also benefiting the Park.
The piece de resistance of the entire evening was supposed to be
the fireworks, intricately designed to create circles of pyrotechnic
luminescence, set to go off at 7:45. |
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Donald
Lipski on his bench
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Tim
MacDonald on his "Giuliani" bench with Suzanne
Cochran
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Bunny
Williams and Joep de Koning
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Dan
Lufkin, Memorie Lewis, and Muffie Potter Aston
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Wendy
Carduner and Emilia Saint Amand
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Emilia
sends us off to our next destination
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We
dashed out of the Josephs to make our way down to Emilia Saint-Amand
and Fred Krimendahl, where they were hosting a party
with Wendy Carduner, a little less than a mile down
the avenue. We were late. It started to rain. Fifth Avenue was almost
in gridlock. The fireworks started while we were in the cab – a
big disappointment. We could hardly see them through the trees, and
they were quick, over in a minute, with an enormous banging of explosives.
At the Krimendahls, the lights were out in the living room and library
overlooking the Park. Everyone was waiting to see the fireworks.
No fireworks. They never saw so much as a sparkler. The plan must
have fizzled in the pouring rain. JH, who grew up in an apartment
overlooking the Park, was surprised. He reminded me of the Y2K fireworks
in the Park. A complete disappointment. This is a mystery for I have
seen fireworks produced by these same people at private parties that
were astounding, and seemed to go on forever. |
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Ara
and Rachel Hovnanian
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Dr.
Sherrell Aston, Cynthia Lufkin, and Mark Gilbertson
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Tom
Quick and Peggy Mehija
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Alexa,
Clark, and Elizabeth Swanson
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Posie
Dana with Guy and Daisy Rutherfurd
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Eben
Pyne and Wendy Vanderbilt
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Once
we were certain that it was “over,” I
moved on to a dinner that Norma Dana was co-hosting
with Honore and Karl Wamsler at the Intercontinental
on Central Park South. They were on the 23rd floor and had
a spectacular view of the Park and did see the very brief fireworks.
There were lots of toasts at this dinner to Norma Dana, who
was one of the founding committee of five in the Central Park
Conservancy.
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Honore
and Karl Wamsler with Norma Dana
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The Conservancy
was the brainchild of Betsy Rogers, about twenty-five
years ago, who realized that the City needed help in maintaining
this great park. In the years since, Mrs. Rogers and her committee
and their now legion of exponents/associates, have raised about
$30 million for the restoration, refurbishing, planting, building
and maintaining the Park for the citizens of New York and the world.
George Gurley, the reporter for the New York
Observer was at the Dana/Wamsler cocktail hour. He asked me
if I still felt fear because of 9/11. Answer: yes. He asked me if
I felt vulnerable as a New Yorker because of 9/11. Answer: yes. Then
he asked me how I felt about the Park and if I were optimistic about
the future. Answer: yes.
The activity of the Conservancy is a prime example of the profound
sense of community that New Yorkers feel about their great big amazing
overwhelming city. This is nothing new. It is our heritage, the gift
of our city fathers first considered building The Central Park (as
it was called initially) in the early decades of the 19th Century.
With that in mind, one cannot help being optimistic. Even when it’s
all we have, optimism is everything. |
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