10.5.07: New York in Season | New York Social Diary

New York in Season

Squash in season at the Union Square Market. 3:20 PM. Photo: JH.

Last night in New York. After a beautiful day, sunny and bright, an unseasonably warm (but who’s complaining?) evening. I started out at the 67th Street Armory on Park Avenue where they were holding the Opening night Preview Party of the International Art + Design Fair 2007 to benefit The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design and Culture.

We’ve covered so many of these fairs over the years that it amazes me that each remains new and fresh. We arrived shortly after 6 when guests were just about to arrive so the aisles were fairly empty and ideal for looking. This Art + Design Fair is full of beautiful things – furniture, paintings, rugs and tapestries, silvers and bronzes, metal work, crystal and glassware. Art Deco, Art Nouveau.

We were there to observe and to photograph but I kept thinking how nice it would be to return on Saturday or Sunday or Monday just for a leisurely look at the beauty man can create. At the Jason Jacques booth which features Art Nouveau and Japonist Ceramic Masterworks, we were admiring an Art Nouveau fireplace made by Hector Guimard.

I asked Mr. Jacques about Art Nouveau and the artist. It was in vogue for about five, maybe ten years, in the late 1890s through 1905. Guimard is the man who did the metal work décor for the Metro in Paris. Jacques pointed out that Guimard continued to create beautiful pieces up until 1935 athough they were no longer selling. They’re selling now, however, eight decades after his passing, and for prices he couldn’t have dreamed of. Beautiful.

The fair is open through next Wednesday, October 10.

Anna and Brian Haughton

Harriet Weintraub with her daughter-in-law

Primavera Gallery, Chelsea, New York.

Bernd Goeckler Antiques, Inc.

Lesley Kehoe Galleries.

Alexandra Biaggi.

Kathy Springhorn and Stephanie Stokes

David Kleinberg and Stewart Manger

Sharon Handler

Galerie Boccara.

Jane Kahan Gallery.

Richard Schurkamp and Christopher Mason

Pemmy Frick and Anne Pyne

Donzella 20th Century Gallery.

Ophir Gallery.

Potterton Books.

Mondo Cane.

R 20th Century.

Martin de Louvre.

An art fair fixture.

Calderwood Gallery.

Two Zero C Applied Arts Ltd.

Jason Jacques.

van Cleef et Arpels.

Geoffrey Diner Gallery, Inc.

Kelly McMillen, Fernanda Gilligan, and Georgina Schaeffer

Bunny Williams and John Rosselli

Galerie Lefebvre.

Pierre M. Dumonteil.

The Gilded Lily.

Modernity.

Galerie 146 Autegarden-Rapin.

I left the Armory and went over to Sotheby’s where they were holding a kick-off party for potential committee members for a Spring 2008 luncheon that will benefit NOFA-NY (Northeast Organic Farming Association), a not-for-profit advocacy and education organization of farmers, gardeners and consumers.


	Ann Colley (right) and friend

NOFA is the oldest and largest organization in the state of New York devoted to organic farming, gardening and the connection between farmers and consumers, encouraging locallyandregionally grownfoods.

I emphasized the latter because although “organic” has become a hip buzzword in our culture, it is also overused to the point of exaggeration and outright falsehood, and we’ve come to take it for granted. The NOFA mission, however, is about creating a sustainable and affordable regional food system that is truly organic. They are committed to bringing information on food choices to the general public to ensure a healthy (and reliable) future for all of us. Hip, sleek and cool may define a lot of the contemporary interest in organic and regionally grown foods but the future has something else in store for us: dire necessity. Hard for a lot of us to believe in the age of aeronautics and rocket science. But believe it because it’s nigh unto upon us.

A few of the guests included: Benefit Committee Chairmen: Jill Fairchild and Peter Melhado, Connie and Rex Farr. Co- Chairmen: Margo Langenberg, Nonie and John Sullivan, Olivia and John Farr, Christine Biddle, Carole Bellidora Westfall. Millbrook Invitation Committee Chair is Patricia Jean, Junior Committee Chairmen are Amanda Hearst, Kick Kennedy, Lauren Bush, and Fernanda Gilligan.

Among the guests last were Sharon Bush, Lauren and Ashley Bush, Alex Baldwin, Lauren Remington Platt, Anne Colley, Jeffrey Bradfield, Kirk Henkels, Mary McFadden, Audrey Gruss, Nonnie and John Sullivan, Olivia and John Farr, Harty and Paul duPont, Judy and Archibald Cox, Carol Higgins Clark, Jeanne Lawrence, Roy Kean, Mai Harrison, Ann Rapp, Bonnie Pfeifer Evans, Alexander Guest, Peter Soros, Count Nicholas Wenckheim, Paola and Arnie Rosenshein, Peggy Race, Victoria Wyman, Angela Susan Anton, Emery Westfall , Hilary and John Block.

Donated organic offerings from some of New York’s most celebrated chefs Peter Hoffman of the Savoy Restaurant, Cloin Alveras of The Tasting Room and Amy Chaplin of Angelica Kitchen and Liz Neumark of Great Performances were served along with Christina Vodka, Twelve, a new sophisticated non-alcoholic beverage, Medlock Ames organic wine, organic wine donated by The Candle Cafe and Candle 79, invitations donated by The Boulevard Magazine, Flowers by Charles Terhout.

After Sotheby’s I went over to Swifty’s to join a friend for dinner. Swifty’s was jumping. At a big round table in the back, Dominick Dunne, finally back from California covering the Phil Spector trial, was hosting a dinner for Luke Parker Bowles and his fiancée, Daniela Stefani Argiro, Simon and Carolyn Parker Bowles (his parents), Mrs. Clare Potter and Andrew Parker Bowles (the groom to be’s uncle), Mr. and Mrs. Ronnie Corbett and Sir Robert and Lady Jane Fellowes (the sister of the late Diana, Princess of Wales). Andrew Parker Bowles’ first wife, Camilla is now Duchess of Cornwall, wife of Prince Charles who was, as the whole world knows, formerly married to the late Princess, sister of Sir Robert and Lady Jane. In case you’ve ever wondered how small that world is.