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Sunday
in
Carl Schurz Park along the East River.
Photos: JH.
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A cool and breezy autumn weekend, turning
slightly chilly by Columbus Day. Now we’ll begin to see the
fall wardrobes come out of the closets.
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Basso
furs line the shop
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Night after night. Going
back to Wednesday, I took my digital and went down to Dennis
Basso’s fur salon on Madison Avenue and
65th Street where they were having a kick-off cocktail party for
the Casita Maria annual gala which takes place a week from today
on October 19th at the Plaza. The Basso bash was fully charged
whatwith the social girls sipping champagne while eyeing and trying
the sumptuous furs, getting in practice for cooler nights and winter
days in the Big Town, not to mention Palm Beach and Palm Springs.
Mr. Basso’s sleek salon had the feel of a homecoming party,
everyone just glad to see the familiar faces.
It was a beautiful night out so when I left Dennis Basso, I strolled
a couple of blocks down the avenue on my way to Graff where they
were having an in-store cocktail pre-party for the Central Park
Conservancy’s Halloween Ball (to be held on October 27). |
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Sharon
Sondes and Geoffrey Thomas and friends
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Darcie
Leeds, Dick Koons, Kristi Witker, and friend
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Jamee
Gregory, Joanne de Guardiola, and Felicia Taylor
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Michael
Cominotto, Lorraine Bracco, and Dennis Basso
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Betsy
Bartlett
and Felicia Taylor
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Violaine
Bernbach and Nixon Richman
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A
Yorkie and her mom
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Ann
Rapp
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Edgar
Battista and Martha Bograd
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Andrew
Saffir
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Pilar
Crespi with her son
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Jackie
Weld Drake
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Nurit
Kahane Haase
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Yanna
Avis
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Prince
Dimitri
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L.
to r.: Denise Rich, Dennis Basso,
and Lorraine Bracco; Arnold and Ann Jurdem;
Joy Rosenthal.
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Michele
Herbert
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Caroline
Hirsch
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Ann
Nitze and Raul Suarez
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Leslie
Stevens
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Michael
Cominotto and friend
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Mr.
and Mrs. Peter Thomas Roth
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Denise
Wohl
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The
waitstaff
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...
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Andrea,
Ashley, and John Stark
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Francine
LeFrak
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Angela
Rich
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Coming
my way, I ran into the beautiful Nina and her handsome Argentinean
beau Leonel Piraino heading up to the Casita cocktail. Nina
was looking positively luminescent with one of her brightest cat-swallowed-the-canary
smiles.
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Leonel
Piraino and Nina Griscom
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I asked her “what’s
up?” They are ... all
excited, headed out to India for a three-week buying trip. Nina
had just signed the lease that day to open a new shop on 70th and
Lexington. She and Antony Todd will encore their Southampton emporium
of decorator objets.
The Graff salon, a perfect complement to the Basso salon – diamonds
and furs – also, on this night was full of the aroma of warm
(and delicious) hors d’oeuvres and a decidedly younger group
enjoying the champagne and eyeing the baubles. Graff – I’ve
written this before – has the most astounding stones that
I couldn’t resist taking a few shots of them – white,
yellow, pink, blue – diamonds that definitely look like any
girl’s best friends. |
The
Four to One Ratio: Alex Pasha Bahadori and Patrick Thomas with
Lara Glazier, Melissa Berkelhemmer,
Marisa Arrendondo, and Debra King. |
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L.
to r.: Graff's Girl's Best Friends.
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L.
to r.: Heather Erickson and Chris London; Graff
Rubies.
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Bob
Colacello signing away
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Taking
a breather |
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Click
image to order Ronnie and Nancy: Their Path to
the White House |
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The
following night, Thursday, I started out at the Neue Galleries on
East 86 Street and Fifth Avenue where they were hosting a booking
signing for Bob Colacello and his mammoth
biography Ronnie
and Nancy about ... who else? The famous couple beautifully
grace the handsome cover of this book that has been an enormous project,
long in the making. It’s a big, thick book and there was a
big and famous crowd gathered to congratulate the author on his achievement.
Mr. Colacello, who began literary life in New York as a writing aide-de-camp,
if you’ll pardon the pun, for Andy Warhol, reaching all the
way back to his Factory and original Interview days, has become in
the ensuing years an established leading member of the New York social/literary
set that he chronicled so fascinatingly before Warhol himself became
Art Establishment and legend. This is not his first biography (he
wrote Holy Terror: Andy Warhol Close Up) but it takes
him completely across the social spectrum. He and Mrs. Reagan are
now old friends and very probably because of it, he had rare access
to Reagan friends, connections and archives. I haven’t read
the book yet but a friend of mine who is distinctly not a Reagan
partisan has been reading it and told me she loves it.
Meanwhile, the author was a veritable book-signing machine,
and must have worn out his hand, for it was a big crowd waiting for
his now
celebrated signature. His mother proudly stood by assisting her son
to keep things moving. On the grand staircase (the Neue Galleries
in another incarnation was the last home of Mrs. Cornelius
Vanderbilt III) three violinists serenaded the guests with all kinds of American
tunes including “Home On the Range.” The indefatigable
yet eternally laid-back George Gurley was taping an impromptu interview
with Governor Pataki. On the first floor, as I was leaving, former
Prime Minister of Canada Brian Mulroney and Mrs. Mulroney were chatting
with the Galleries’ founder Ronald Lauder and Veronica (Mrs.
Randolph) Hearst. I got a shot of them and was off down the avenue
to a reception and dinner at the Metropolitan Club marking the Centennial
of the Hispanic Society of America where the guest of honor was the
Crown Prince Felipe of Spain and his bride, Letizia,
the Princess of Asturias, but more on that later. |
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Casey
Ribicoff and Peter Rogers
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Agnes
Gund
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Kenny
Lane
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Bettina
Zilkha
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Serena
Boardman
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Alexandra
Kotur and Jonathan Becker
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Phyllis
George and Charles Gargano
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Violinists
serenading the guests
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Peggy
Siegal, Nick Simunek, Paul Wilmot, and Terry Allen
Kramer
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Ronald
Lauder, Veronica Hearst, and Brian Mulroney
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Bill
Luers,
Happy Rockefeller, and Wendy Luers
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L.
to r.: Christopher Mason and Ivana Lowell; Grace
McQuade and Hilary Heard; Bob Colacello with
his mom.
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