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Tiles
for America, a September 11th memorial consisting of
6,000 or so tiles created across
the country. This triangular parking lot was formerly
the site of a wedge-shaped diner that is rumored to have
been the inspiration for Edward Hopper's
Nighthawks. 10:10 PM. Photo: JH.
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Last
night Anne Bass held a book party at her Fifth Avenue apartment
for her old friend, the multi-tasking,
very creative Carolyne Roehm and her newest book Presentations;
Passions for Gift Wrapping. Ms. Roehm has created a small
industry out of her highly developed aesthetic tastes appealing
to those millions of us who wish we could make everything look
as beautiful as she does.
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Carolyne
Roehm
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Well, I can’t. I’ve tried. Half-heartedly and always
with impatience starting with finding the right supplies, and finishing
with gumming up the works with too many folds and too much Scotch
tape. Presentations publication is, not coincidentally,
occurring with the launch of Ms. Roehm’s beautiful web site,
also called Presentations. Where you can not only see how she achieves
her parcels of beauty, but also where you can buy the very supplies
she does it with.
There was a big crowd filling Mrs. Bass’ enormous art-filled
apartment. I saw Nina Griscom and Leonel Peraino, John
Dobkin, Mario Buatta, Patricia Altschul, Christopher Mason, Blaine
Trump,
Dr. Pat Allen, Faye Wattleton, Sharon Hoge, Cathy and Steve Graham,
Francesca Stanfill and Dick Nye, Pierre Durand, Toni and James
Goodale, Joanie Schnitzer-Levy, George Farias, Cece Cord, Jackie
Weld Drake, Connie and Randy Jones, Wilbur and Hilary
Ross, Robert Couturier, and Patricia Patterson to
name just a few.
I stayed long enough to get a picture of the designer/author with
her new book, and a picture of the Roehm-wrapped book (every guest
got one as well as a roll of lavendar and white striped gift-wrapping
paper from the new Presentations line). |
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Roehm-wrapped
books
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Presentations;
Passions for Gift Wrapping. Click
cover to order.
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From
there I grabbed a cab to travel farther down the
avenue to pick up my friend Joy Rosenthal and
take her over to Alice Mason’s Christmas
dinner party. Alice’s dinners are always dressy affairs and
Joy was looking smart and sumptuous for the evening, so I couldn’t
resist taking a quick picture of her on Mrs. Mason’s front
doorstep.
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Joy
Rosenthal
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You can see,
if you look carefully that Mrs. Rosenthal is wearing only one diamond
earring. I didn’t notice it at the time, although I recalled
noticing them sparkling in the darkness of the cab on the ride
up, and Joy didn’t notice it either until we got upstairs
and she was removing her coat. She lost the other one in the cab
as
she was getting out. I went back downstairs and retraced our steps
and looked in the gutter puddle where we disembarked, but it was
nowhere to be found.
Joy figures it must have fallen off when she was wrapping the collar of her fur
around her neck as she was about to get out of the cab. Although a very fashionable
lady, she told me she’d never had her ears pierced and so earrings can
come off quite easily.
She was very disappointed but valiantly philosophical about it. I’d taken
a receipt for the cab fare so she’ll be checking with the taxi commission
this morning to see if it were turned in. The value of the earring is negligible
except to Joy: they were given to her by her adored late husband.
Meanwhile upstairs at Alice Mason’s, most of the crowd had already congregated.
There was a time, for decades actually, when Alice Mason, the doyenne of private
real estate, gave one of these dinner parties nine times a year during the season.
In recent years, her entertaining schedule has quieted down and this was the
first dinner she’s given since last Spring.
The dinners are always black tie, and called for cocktails at 8 pm. At about
a quarter to nine the staff begins the task of breaking up the cocktail conversations
so that people can find their way to their tables.
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DPC
and Alice Mason at lunch at Michael's
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This is not
always so easy because it is a high powered group and full of conversation.
In last night’s crowd were two great artists on the American scene – Woody
Allen (with Soon-Yi) and David Hockney who
was in town to see the hanging of one of his great paintings at MoMA (he heads
back to London in the next day
or two).
Also: David and Helen Gurley Brown, Louise Grunwald, Jenny Conant and
Steve Kroft,
Boaz Mazor, Aileen Mehle, Brian Saltzman, Dominique Richard (Alice’s
daughter),
Kathy Sloane, Laura and Will Zeckendorf, Mario Buatta, Patricia Altschul,
Paul Beirne, Jacques Leviant, Roz Jacobs, George David and Marie Douglas-David,
Gaetana
Enders, Charlie Scheips, Connie and Randy Jones, Nora Ephron and Nick Pileggi,
Alexis Gregory, Mona Ackerman and Richard Cohen, Jill Spalding, Bridget Restivo,
Nan and Gay
Talese, Brian Saltzman, Luke Yang, and Christopher Mason.
Meanwhile, just a hop, skip and a jump away, less than a half a
block down the
avenue at Swifty’s Jack Swain of Dallas was in town and took over the restaurant
to give a dinner in honor of Lisa Fine and jewelry designers Lady Charlotte
di
Carcacci and Kate Braine from London. Lisa’s technically from Mississippi
although she now makes her home here and mostly in Paris. Lady Charlotte is the
stepsister of the late Princess Diana as well as the granddaughter of the most
prolific romance novelist of all time, Barbara Cartland. Lisa and Carolina
Irving
are launching their fabrics and embroidery custom-made to their specifications
in India, which will be for sale all this week at Langham & Company at 153
East 60th (across the street from the north side of Bloomingdale’s).
In the huge crowd: Jay and Tracy Snyder, Lisa Bernbach, Pierre Durand,
George Faria Jean Pigozzi, Kimberly Du Ross, Marcia and Richard Mishaan, Elizabeth
Cabot,
Katie Ridder and Peter Pennoyer, Nina Griscom and Leonel Piraino, Debbie Bancroft,
Olivier Berggruen, Robert de Rothschild, Nuno Brandolini, CC Wilkerson, Millie
de Cabrol and Jeff Podolsky, Elizabeth Mayhew, Alex Hitz, Isabella Rattazzi,
Allison Mazzola, Ivana Lowell, Bill Smith, Bruce Addison, Keith Langham, Louis
Bofferding, Jamie Creel, Guy Trebay, Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia, and
more,
many many more. |
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last night at the Downtown Cipriani at 376
West Broadway, Henri Barguirdjian, President and
CEO of Graff, hosted a cocktail and dinner party for fashion and
accessories editors. |
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The
dinner table set for nearly 40
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Lauren
Ezersky
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Graff's
Peter Kairis, Colleen Caslin, and Henri Barguirdjian
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Alice
Kim (In Style), Sophia Chabbott (W & WWD),
and Kathleen Fitzpatrick
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L.
to r.: Something to whet the ladies' appetites — a
10-karat white diamond ring and a 41-karat yellow diamond
ring; Colleen Caslin, Jasmine Chang (Oprah),
and Danielle Rossi.
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The
table setting for one Alexis Bryan
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Graff
jewelry cases with a little (or big) surprise for all
of the lucky dinner guests
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Eddie
van der Gest and Alice Kim
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Kelly
Carter (People)
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Rebecca
Guiness (Absolute) and Heather Severs (Town & Country)
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Samantha
Yanks (Gotham), Jason Oliver Nixon (Gotham),
Claudia Mata (Town & Country), and Marcie
Pantzer (Town & Country)
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Luisana
Mendoza (Vogue), Filipa Fino (Vogue),
and Hyla Bauer (Conde Nast Traveler)
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Hyla
Bauer and
Colleen Caslin
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Alison
Burwell (W & WWD), Colleen Caslin,
Brooke Magnaghi (W & WWD), and
Jamie Rosen (W & WWD)
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