5.2.11: A thing of beauty | New York Social Diary

A thing of beauty

Soaking up the beauty under the statue of Alexander Hamilton at East 83rd Street and Central Park. 2:55 PM. Photo: JH.

Monday, May 2, 2011. A beautiful sunny weekend in New York turning chilly at night.

The wedding. Friday and Saturday “the wedding” was somehow on everyone’s lips in one way or another. I didn’t watch the ceremony (too early for this late-to-bedder) but I did watch the videos on the British papers – the Mail, the Telegraph, the Guardian.

A tender New York moment.

The Financial Times also offered some excellent historical analysis namely those pieces by Simon Schama and by the FT’s US Managing Editor Gillian Tett who is a bit of an expert on the socio-historical nature of weddings and why they universally please (old grumps notwithstanding). Although weddings per se are not an interesting spectacle to me, I did watch the wedding thirty years ago of the Prince’s mother and father and recall being amazed by the storybook-like splendor. I found watching the clips of their son’s wedding had a different effect: it pleased me to see the couple and their wedding party of little ones; good feelings abounded everywhere.

Friday afternoon Jill Lynne, who lives in the Village went around with her camera and caught some of the local citizens celebrating or marking the event with pleasure and smiles:

The very English Nikki, Founder & Owner NYC's quintessentially British "Tea & Sympathy."

Anglophiles celebrate in West Greenwich Village ...

The very popular Tea Shoppe - busier than ever.

Store windows * both Mexican & French Restaurants celebrate along with the Brits.

I had dinner on Saturday night with friends at Café Luxembourg. As we were finishing up, eight very well dressed women came in and were seated at a long table right next to us. Because they were all so attractive and well turned out as contrasted to most of us clientele at Café Lux – which is casual and laid back at all times – we wondered who they were and where they were from. After increased speculation on our parts, the reporter at our table finally asked the two women sitting closest to us Who? and What?

Answers: They were all old friends from Fort Worth and this was their 13th annual group visit to New York for a 4/5 day weekend. They were staying together at a friend’s (large) apartment on Central Park South and they’d spent their New York time dining, shopping, going to the theatre and enjoying their annual reunion.

Soon there was conversation between the two tables, as it often is in New York when people become newly acquainted. However, it was also the end of our dinner hour there, so before we left I pulled out my trusty little Canon and got a shot of our new friends. Good Morning Fort Worth! Very nice to meet you.

The ladies of Fort Worth dining Saturday night at Cafe Luxembourg: Susy Duggins, Kim Darden, Susan Brown, Carla Thompson, Luralee Sowa, Kelly Ann Ewin, Ann Ferguson, and Kaydie Bailey.

Meanwhile Sunday night late came the news that Osama Bin Laden had been killed in Pakistan almost ten years after the World Trade Center attacks.

The Week Just Passed. The social calendar is rife with benefits right now. Last Thursday night, for example, there were a half dozen major events. Over at the American Museum of Natural History they were hosting their annual Museum Dance. Hundreds of young supporters of the museum attended the black tie affair (see Party Pictures).

Over at the Plaza, Turn Around; Partners in School Transformation were holding their Turnaround Impact Awards Dinner emceed by Chris Cuomo and honoring Kelly Posner Gerstenhaber (founding chair of Turnaround) and John Legend, whose award was accepted by Luke Russert.


	The invitation for the Versailles Foundation/Claude Monet-Giverny's annual black tie benefit dinner.

While just across the way at the Pierre, the Versailles Foundation/Claude Monet-Giverny was holding its annual black tie benefit dinner in the presence of Her Royal Highness, Duchess Elizabeth in Bavaria, Princess of Bavaria. This year’s funds raised will go to support the Statues Restoration Campaign in the Parc of the Chateau de Versailles. It is the custom at these dinners that the honored guest, always a member of a European royal family, gives a fascinating 15 minute talk on their family’s history.

Up at Sotheby’s, the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation was hosting its 5th Annual black tie Connoisseur’s Dinner in the galleries previewing Impressionist and Modern Art from Sotheby’s upcoming sales. There was a wine tasting courtesy of Sotheby’s and the auction houses’s Executive Vice President Jamie Niven conducted a fund-raising auction. Event chairs were Leonard Lauder and Nancy Corzine.

Farther up the road at the New York Botanical Garden, they were holding the 19th Annual Antique Garden Furniture Show Preview Party and Collectors’ Plant Sale which was underwritten in part by Adam Rose and Peter McQuillan with additional support from MISH and Howard Slatkin. Susan Burke, Barbara Cirkva and Mish were the Preview Party Chairs, and there were three dozen exhibitors to thrill the design community, the horticultural community and all their connoisseurs.

Also, same night down at the Frank Gehry designed IAC Building on 555 West 18th Street, the Children’s Storefront was celebrating its annual Spring Gala celebrating 45 years of “changing lives” chaired by Vanessa and Henry Cornell, Fiona and Stanley Druckenmiller, Lise and Michael Evans, and John A. MacKerron drawing a big crowd.

Guests at the Municipal Art Society dinner in the Celeste Bartos Forum on Thursday night.

While at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building of the New York Public Library on 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue, hundreds more New Yorkers gathered for the Municipal Art Society of New York’s annual dinner and presentation of the 2011 Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Medal to Diane Von Furstenberg.

The Municipal Art Society was founded in 1893 by some far-seeing New Yorkers who were concerned about the burgeoning growth of the city which in less than four decades had moved from a center south of Fourteenth Street to what we now call midtown and north today. They’d broken ground in the development of Central Park in that time period and the population of the city had the Civil War. Fortunately for us New Yorkers, “vision” abounded among the city civic and cultural leaders.

Tim Gunn, Caroline Kennedy, and Chair of The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, Robert B. Tierney, were Thursday evening’s honorary chairs in honoring Ms. Von Furstenberg/Mrs. Barry Diller for her work as an urban pioneer, civic activist and preservationist.

Robert Tierney telling the audience about Diane Von Furstenberg's activity in the re-development of the Meatpacking District ...

In his remarks pre—presentation, Mr. Tierney recounted to the guests how the designer had chosen to restore a very old building in the Meatpacking District for her new design and retail headquarters and how that put the stamp of approval on the area encouraging many others to follow suit. Today, the District, which 40 years ago was derelict and unknown to most New Yorkers, is now one of the most popular destinations (and residential areas) in the City.

At the presentation, Ms. Von Furstenberg revealed herself to be a very comfortable public speaker as she recounted her inspired determination in settling in the Meatpacking, and highlighted her meeting Joshua David and Robert Hammond who had their own vision for the then derelict and abandoned High Line. When she learned of it, she set to work to support them. The rest is history.

... beginning with creating headquarters for her own company in one of the district's oldest buildings, which she completely renovated and updated.

Among those in attendance at the black tie evening were fellow designers Oscar de la Renta (with Mrs. de la Renta), Nicole Miller, Norma Kamali and MAS Board Members Yeohlee Teng, Kent L. Barwick, Enid L. Beal, Laurie Beckelman, Paul R. Beirne, Elizabeth H. Berger, Eugenie L. Birch, Lisa Smith Cashin, David M. Childs, James M. Clark, Jr., Diane M. Coffey, Gordon J. Davis, Heidi Ettinger; Kitty Hawks, Philip K. Howard, Frederick Iseman, Tony Kiser, Julie Menin, Frances A. Resheske, Stephen C. Swid, Kent Swig, Helen S. Tucker, Earl D. Weiner, William H. Wright, II; and Gary J. Zarr.

Also in attendance were Friends of the High Line founders David and Hammond; Alexandra Howard, Joan Davidson, Coco Kopelman, Nan Swid, Joe Versace, Caroline Weber, Brenda and Kelley Anderson, Betsy Perry, several Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis medalists such as Agnes Gund, Stephen Swid; former MAS Board Members Ashton Hawkins and Arie Kopelman; architects Toshiko Mori and Elizabeth Diller.

Diane Von Furstenberg, after accepting her Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis medal, telling the audience how she much admired Mrs. Onassis' work with MAS and how she got involved and was inspired by the re-developers of the High Line.

The annual gala was followed by the first annual MAS After Dark after party, hosted by the MAS Urbanists – the name given the junior group. The event brought out more than 400 young New Yorkers to dance, drink and get to know MAS.

MAS President Vin Cipolla pointed out that “More than 700 New Yorkers took part in a wonderful tribute to Diane von Furstenberg." The evening raised nearly $800,000 for MAS and was made possible by a host of donors, including the following lead sponsors: Allen and Company; The Janet and Arthur Ross Foundation; Frederick Iseman; Bloomberg; American Express; Tishman Speyer; The Diller – von Furstenberg Family Foundation; The William and Mary Greve Foundation; and Christopher and Sharon Davis.

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Photographs by DPC.

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