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Make It a Blockbuster Night
Festivities are finally winding down on the Riviera (see our roundup of top Cannes looks here), but judging by the fashions at Thursday night’s amfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala, many stars saved their best looks for the home stretch. Opting for understated pastels were
Jennifer Lopez,
in Roberto Cavalli;
Elizabeth Banks,
in Atelier Versace; and
Kate Beckinsale,
in a sculptural ice blue Armani Privé gown that must’ve required a trunk of its own to transport.
Emily Blunt,
meanwhile, radiated heat in a fire engine red number by Edition by Georges Chakra. Others expressed their wild sides:
Karolina Kurkova donned a Marchesa frock with a crocheted-up-to-there fringe skirt,
Dree Hemingway looked every inch the Day-Glo ballerina in Valentino Haute Couture, and
Michelle Williams opted for an itty-bitty Sonia Rykiel dress covered in colorful, gobstopper-sized paillettes.
—Romney Leader Continue reading
Out for Funds
Creative Time had plenty of good reasons for holding its annual benefit in a Chinatown dim sum palace. One, the public art outfit was celebrating its mission’s going global. Two, honorees Marc and Andrea Glimcher of the Pace Gallery recently opened a branch in Beijing. And, last but not least, the organizers figured an offbeat venue (complete with a deafening dinner gong) might just be good for sales. “The kitsch removes any intimidation and adds to the joviality,” pointed out Phillips de Pury auctioneer Alexander Gilkes, who moved a piece of made-to-order jewelry by Anna Hu and a Vik Muniz portrait commission during the live auction.
Phillip Lim, who was seated at a table with photographers Vinoodh Matadin and Inez van Lamsweerde, was certainly in jovial spirits. “That’s major,” he remarked about the escalator he’d ridden to get up to the party. Presumably, he would have had to reach for a second superlative to describe the team of dragon dancers who got the crowd moving to the sounds of Jay-Z.
Meanwhile, across town at Hiro, Anthology Film Archives had thrown together a nontraditional fundraiser of its own. With Moby on the decks, Lou Reed improvising a guitar soundtrack for an experimental film being projected onstage, and nary a necktie in sight, the proceedings had the feel of a good old-fashioned “happening,” albeit one with an extra sense of urgency. The pioneering East Village avant-garde movie house has seen better days, after all. “The thing is, what Anthology gives, you can’t get anywhere else,” Philip Seymour Hoffman told the audience. And it needs a new roof, he added. Considering how many supporters turned up—Julian Schnabel, Cynthia Rowley, and Eddie Borgo, included—Anthology might just get it.
—Darrell Hartman Continue reading
Who Made Your Cannes Best-Dressed List?
—Romney Leader Continue reading
The Butterfly Effect
Party planner Bronson Van Wyck used sleight of hand to turn the Pierre hotel’s ballroom into a pleasure garden for the Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s spring gala, sponsored by David Yurman, last night. There were pots of rosemary and freshly picked tulips on tables, and, in lieu of hanging vines, thousands of hand-painted butterflies crafted out of feathers. “Decadent on a budget,” event co-chair Tory Burch assured us. Hey, those butterflies are helping to raise money for a cause.
There’s not too much penny-pinching in the designer’s near future, though—Burch heads to Seoul next month to cut the tape on a new store, followed by openings in Rome and London in the fall. She got plenty of friends to join her at the Pierre, including Tamara Mellon, who has been busy lending the Jimmy Choo touch to a limited-edition Ugg sheepskin boot. The London transplant has also been settling into her new digs on the Upper East Side. “I still feel like the new girl in town,” Mellon said. “I need to do a housewarming.”
Mary J. Blige performed after dinner, but the evening (which raised a total of $1.4 million) wasn’t all about dressing up and clinking glasses. Breast cancer survivor Hoda Kotb knows this better than anyone. “If you do make it through something like this, you get a four-word takeaway: ‘You can’t scare me.’ It’s very empowering,” the Today show anchor explained. “When you realize your life has margins, you stop wasting time.”
—Darrell Hartman Continue reading
“Smoking Hot”
The American Ballet Theatre held its spring gala last night, and even though First Lady Michelle Obama didn’t drop by the Met as she did last year, plenty of leading ladies came to help the ballet company celebrate its 70th anniversary. Following remarks by Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg and Blaine Trump, the curtain went up on a two-hour program that offered a preview of coming months, including selections from Swan Lake and Giselle and an extra-generous dose of Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty.
A passionate, earthbound pas de deux from Lady of the Camellias, set to music by Chopin and featuring Bruce Weber favorite Roberto Bolle, got Veronica Webb‘s heart thumping. “Smoking hot,” she concluded on her way into the dinner tent. There, ballerinas Veronika Part and Julie Kent were joined by the likes of Elettra Wiedemann (in Toni Maticevski) and Alexandra Kerry (in Ralph Lauren). Taking in the scene, Christian Cota explained why, of the many swans he dresses for black-tie evenings, dancers are often the hardest: “I’m always pushing them to wear higher heels, but they don’t like them. So hems are always an issue.” The Mexican-born designer conceded he understands where they’re coming from, though. “They have to take care of their feet. If they fall and break an ankle, that wouldn’t be good,” he said. Especially if it happened on a red carpet.
—Darrell Hartman Continue reading