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.
The New York Botanical Garden’s Orchid Dinner on Tuesday night celebrated human cultivation of one of nature’s most beautiful creatures. No matter how lovely the ladies, the orchids outshone them all.
Several designers and artists created fanciful centerpieces made of orchids, including Nina Campbell, Michele Oka Doner, Philip Gorrivan, and, working together, Celerie Kemble, Lela Rose, and Bronson Van Wyck.
There were 300 guests, including the mayor, who demonstrated he knows quite a bit about things that bloom. The event raised $600,000 for the garden.
“Your generous support tonight will help the garden sink strong financial roots … and ensure that one of New York’s most beautiful and important cultural institutions continues to flower and flourish for years to come,” Mr. Bloomberg said.
Another type of cultivation was celebrated at the Lycee Francais de New York’s annual benefit February 3, at which the school’s tres belles parents raised more than $1 million for the refined, rigorous, and bilingual education of their enfants.
“It’s a very unusual, international community,” the school’s president, Elsa Berry Bankier, said.
The event broke a million after the live auction when the auctioneer, Simon de Pury, called for cash donations, bringing the total to $1,005,000.
“Next year we should just skip the auction! It’s much more efficient,” Mr. de Pury joked.
The event committee, led by chairwomen Carole Marchi and Stephanie Cuskley, chose One Thousand and One Nights as the theme. A larger than life turbaned sultan, borrowed from a Bloomingdale’s window display, greeted guests. Children from the high school dressed in Arabian-style costumes. Most of the guests – among them Susan Fales-Hill, the chef and restaurateur Daniel Boulud, and the conductor James Conlon – played it safe and designer frocks and tuxedos.
