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.
Dressing up for fund-raising parties can be a bore. But when a party has a theme, everyone can get excited about what to wear. So it was Thursday at the Frick Collection’s Young Fellows Ball, one of the best dressed parties of the year. The “go and tapas” theme transformed staid investment bankers into matadors and prim and proper Bergdorf blondes into Spanish beauties.
The style came straight from the Spanish paintings by El Greco and Goya hanging in the galleries – and from the spring collection of Vera Wang, who sponsored the ball. Guests demonstrated ingenuity with their accessories. The chief curator of the Frick Collection, Colin Bailey, custom-ordered a Zorro-style hat with red ribbon from the Web site Hatcrafters.com. Karla Harwich paired a ruffled white blouse and floor-length skirt with a gold belt she found at the Upper East Side Mexican boutique Pan American Phoenix. Christiana Killian created a headdress of black lace. The museum passed out red fans.
Event designer Bronson Van Wyck, flamboyant by nature, shined in a bolero jacket and cape. Who would have guessed he’s from Arkansas?
Some guests suffered fashion regret once they arrived at the party. “I’m feeling overexposed,” the co-owner of Lara Helene Bridal Atelier, Lara Meiland, said, noting her dress felt like a piece of lingerie. Her fiance, Claude Shaw, didn’t seem to mind.
Dancing, smoking, and gorging on four kinds of paella occupied most of the evening. The rest was spent touring the galleries. The event, which drew 700 guests, raised $275,000.
