Tribeca Film Festival Fashion
The Vanity Fair dinner opening the Tribeca Film Festival, which took place last night, is by now one of New York's socially exclusive traditions. With Graydon Carter presiding, the event pre-figured his Waverly Inn, except in some ways it still has more punch, because it takes place not in the well-established small-scale West Village, but on an open frontier downtown, namely, the State Supreme Courthouse.
Arriving guests posing for photographers played out a fashion runway that gives a sense of the freedom and strictures of Tribeca dressing.
It's festive, a little bohemian, and at times serious, but all the time crisp and elegant: if you were wearing jeans, then you looked more like a criminal entering the courthouse than an invited guest.
The cocktail dress was the dominant uniform, well worn by Iman and Jessica Seinfeld.
Some women showed less skin by pulling on cocktail-length coats, such as Martha Stewart and Angelica Huston.
The dressed-up trench also made some excellent turns, on Alba Clemente, in shiny red, and Serena Altschul, in a black and white print, which she made more elegant with a pair of black gloves.
Women in suits, such as Diana Taylor and Amanda Burden, looked fab.
Grace Hightower's floor-length black kaftan with a rich decorative print was gorgeous, magical, unique: a look that was her right, as she accompanied by one of the festival's founders, Robert DeNiro.
Photos of the event can be viewed at http://www.patrickmcmullan.com.
