Driving away from Grand Central Station after a brief downpour. 1:30 PM. Photo: JH.

Cloudy, cool and almost rainy grey day in New York. The streets were jammed and the holiday traffic has begun with the lighting on Wednesday night of the tree at Rockefeller Center. Yesterday at noon at the Metropolitan Club Audrey Gruss held a luncheon to announce the launch of the Hope For Depression Research Foundation which she founded in April 2006 in honor of her mother Hope who suffered from clinical depression. HFDR was originally funded by the Audrey and Martin Gruss Foundation. Since the foundation is now a public charity with a 501 (c) (3) tax status, they are obliged to raise a portion of its funds from the public. The mission of the Hope For Depression Research Foundation is to quickly fund groundbreaking international research into the origins, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of depression and related disorders, with the ultimate goal of finding a cure. Audrey Gruss Audrey’s mother suffered from depression for most of her late adult life. Her family witnessed “decades of misdiagnosis, trials of medication, troublesome side effects, the psychic pain and life-sapping loss of energy that is the mark of clinical depression.” Hope was, in spite of all this a “creative and talented woman, a writer and a poet” who produced hundreds of beautiful poems which chronicled her difficult life. After she passed away in December 2005, her daughter vowed to do all within her power to conquer this dreadful illness. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH), almost 21 million people in the U.S. suffer from clinical depression. Yesterday’s luncheon included Dominick Dunne leading a discussion of depression in the creative community. Jay McInerney read from his book on depression. Mrs. Gruss discussed the need to accept depression as a chemical imbalance and a medical illness. John Roland was the emcee. The new foundation’s approach is to focus research in the fields of neuroscience which hold the greatest possibility for  breakthrough developments – genetics and epigenetics, neuroanatomy, neurochemistry, and neurophysiology. HDRF hopes this approach will revolutionize treatment of depression as well as related disorders such as anxiety, bipolar disorder, post-partum depression, post-traumatic stress syndrome and ADHD. Among the guests listening and participating were Pat Altschul, Doug Hannant, Stephanie Krieger, Ann Barish, Cornelia Bregman, Saundra Whitney, Beth DeWoody, Susan Gutfreund, Hilary Geary Ross, Carole Guest, Somers Farkas, Maggie Norris, Ann Tisch, Adrienne Vittadini, Dailey Patte, Virginia Coleman, Jackie Weld Drake, Peter Gregory, Max Federbush, Nancy Schaffel, Andrew Solomon, Catherine Adler, Sharon Bush, Dr. Samantha Boardman, Dr. Anna Chapman, Sharon Handler, and Lis Waterman Like the tree at Rockefeller Center, the holiday parties have begun. No surprise, many of them are taking place in places of commerce. In other words, stores. The new society is a consumer society as we know, and the retail establishments are very much a part of that new society. In fact, if they weren’t I don’t know what a lot of these people would do to get their fund-raisers off the ground. It’s marketing with a capitol “P” which stands for ... philanthropy. And for the philanthropies, it’s a very good thing. And for the stores, it’s bringing in the clientele right up to the countertops – where in many cases under these circumstance – they are occupied by glasses of champagne, Perrier and such top drawer libations. Ana Lucia de Teresa's jeweled rings on display at last night's exhibition at the Porcelain Company. Over at Bunny Williams and John Rosselli’s Treillage on 318 East 75th (between York and First), they were fete-ing the Botanical Garden and their upcoming gala dinner dance. The Botanical is one of the most prestigious of the charities in New York drawing its supporters from some of the top philanthropists and corporate foundations. Their galas bring out the crème de la crème, so to speak, and Williams & Rosselli are the crème de la crème of hail fellows (and maidens) well met. And great hosts too. I started out at the Porcelain Company at the corner of 58th Street and Park Avenue where its partners Pierre Durand and Conor Mahoney were holding a reception for the jewels of Sanjay Kasliwal of The Gem Palace of Jaipur, India (“Jewellers Since 1852”). These are always very chic parties and draw from the international set. Also there last night was another Ana Lucia de Teresa, a young jewelry designer from Paris who was wearing a dress of jeweled accessories from Louis Vuitton.

Muffy Miller (wearing the earrings of) and Sanjay Kaskliwal

Gary Parr and Laurie Dhue

Hamish Bowles and Carolina Irving

Patricia Jean, Emily Jean, and Catchia Goggin

Ana Lucia and Alicia de Teresa

Ana Lucia in her Louis Vuitton dress and her own earrings

Jewels from Sanjay Kasliwal and The Gem Palace of Jaipur, India.

Jay Snyder and friend

Yanna Avis and Prince Dimitri

Toto Bergamo Rossi and Violetta Caprotti

Dr. Bill Haseltine, Kirat Young, and Alex Hitz

Larry Lovett, Ann Nitze, Betsy Lovett, and Toto Bergamo Rossi

From the Porcelain Company, I walked a couple of blocks east to 150 East 58th Street where interior/furniture and accessories designer Richard Mishaan was hosting a party with Bloomingdale’s his new showroom (which is just across Beacon Court from Bloomies. Richard Mishaan’s Christmas/holiday decorations are going on sale at Bloomingdale’s today. I took some shots of the Mishaan very glamorous Christmas trees covered with his ornaments.

Susan Dunleavy and Jeanne Lawrence

Marcia and Richard Mishaan

Luigi Tadini and Allison Mazzola

Richard Mishaan's holiday ornaments, now on sale at Bloomingdale's.

After a brief visit I walked up a couple blocks and caught a cab to take me up to 70th and Madison. I was heading for the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House’s Holiday Gala’s cocktail reception at Asprey before the dinner dance at the Union Club. However, I stopped to get some shots of the stylish holiday window displays -- the stylish cutting edge holiday window displays, that is -- at Asprey’s neighbor, the Tom Ford store.

Four of the window displays at Tom Ford.

Clockwise from above: Ralph Lauren's window; Eli's window from afar and the gingerbread house up close.

Then on to Asprey where the (young) ladies and gentlemen were still alighting from their limousines, resplendent in their gowns and shined up in their black tie. The new Asprey shop, which occupies half of the east side of the block between 70th and 71st Streets, was jammed. And in the middle of the first floor was a grand piano being played by a phlegmatically bemused musician who managed to continually riff on one Gershwin tune. It was perfect holiday cocktail party Upper East Side Manhattan music, while all around the talkers were talking and the Champagne was flowing and jingle-jangle, here comes Santa Claus.

There was more party upstairs in the store’s paneled rooms, its display cases replete with more resplendence, stuff you could imagine yourself getting from some very style-aware (and generous) friend. I don’t shop, so all of this stuff is always new and always amazing to me. So I helped myself to a glass of champagne, Veuve-Cliquot it looked like to me, and had a brief chat with some friends, and a briefer picture taking of the crowd.

Mark Gilbertson and Karen Luter

Mary Van Pelt and Virginia Pitman

Whitney and Robert Douglas

Judith Guest and Mary Snow

Polly Onet and David Svanda

Eduardo Lovelace and Michelle Heary

Alison Minton, Justin Karr, and Anait Bian

Justin Karr, Georgina Schaeffer, and Jack Bryan

Dorothee Volpini de Maestri, Lise Arliss, and Tiff Metcalf

Chappy and Melissa Morris

Allison Aston and Mark Gilbertson

I wasn’t going on to the dinner so I had to get out of there before nine in order to make Eli’s before closing. Eli’s, if you didn’t know, is the East Side emporium version of a once-upon-a-time deli. Its creator, one Eli Zabar, is an off-spring of the Zabar of Zabar’s, my favorite Saturday morning visit. Eli’s has prices to match the portfolios of its chic clientele from avenues Park, Madison and Fifth, and quality naturally; as well as a little something for the rest of us hoi-polloi from the nabe. They have very good soups, very good cheese Danish, very good everything and the very good prices, which need no exaggeration. I made it on time to get my fresh soup (Vegetarian Chili and Bean) and my cheese Danish for afterwards. Leaving, I grabbed the last  shot of a window for the night – featuring Eli’s very own gingerbread house, an Upper East Side gingerbread house. I have no doubt some little one from one of the avenues aforementioned is gonna see that fantastic hunk of cookie, candy, sugar and cream, and go: I wannit!  And he’ll get it. Jingle-jingle all the way.

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