Out & About
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Men do attend fashion shows, but there’s a reason why you won’t often see their photographs in the press: They dress horribly. Ronald Perelman, Alec Baldwin, Phil Collins, spotted at shows this week, looked all wrong. Women understand the rules: When you go to a fashion show, you have to look fashionable. It doesn’t mean you have to be as fabulous as Andre Leon Talley, but at least take a cue from Barry Diller, who at his wife, Diane von Furstenberg’s, fashion show, played it safe and preppy.
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There’s lots of money on the street these days, and while the head honchos take their lion’s shares, the young ones do pretty well, too. One result is that that junior fund-raising groups are becoming more serious.
About 10 years ago, nonprofits of all sizes started to launch groups for men and women in their 20s and 30s. The idea at the time was to groom donors for major gifts when they matured. These groups, essentially run by development departments, were distinct from the decades-old exclusive and quiet associations for the wealthy sons and daughters of an institution’s major donors.
Now young people are ready to do some good with their hedge fund riches, and those sons and daughters are open to extending their social circle. And so the junior events circuit is booming, both in terms of attendance and amounts of money being raised.
The Young New Yorkers for the Philharmonic gala Thursday drew 320 people and raised more than $90,000. The black-tie affair started with a concert, then moved to a private club for dinner and dancing.
On the same night, the Partnership for Public Service gathered 375 people and raised $70,000 for its work promoting careers in civil service.
Those dollar amounts might not seem like much, but it used to be that these events barely broke even.
Guests with prominent family names (Bass, Trump, Cuomo) were at both events, along with lots of others, attached perhaps to prominent colleges, banks, or law firms.
The Go Public event even had the parents. Samuel Heyman founded the Partnership for Public Service. His children and in-laws organized the event. So Mr. Heyman and his wife, Ronnie, kept busy doting on their children’s friends.
At the Philharmonic event, with the black-tie dress code and stodgy club setting, the young guests certainly looked all grown-up, forging their own traditions of supporting the arts.
