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.
Women about town are looking radiant these days, and it’s not because they’re changing their hair and outfits several times a day. That is simply a requirement of participation in the fund-raising circuit, and certainly not the fun of it though it is fun to document). No, the glow has more to do with what women have been celebrating at the events, something they’re passionate about: beautiful objects and design.
“What he’s doing is the ultimate in refinement and elegance,” a fashion designer, James Galanos, said at a luncheon Thursday honoring American fashion designer Ralph Rucci.
“Each woman here is wearing his designs in her own particular way, but it’s still distinctively Ralph Rucci,” the editor of Harper’s Bazaar, Glenda Bailey, said at the event, organized by the Couture Council of the Fashion Institute of Technology.
Tucked into a booth at Brasserie 8 1/2, a guest at the luncheon, Melva Bucksbaum, raved about the recent Frieze art fair in London, particularly the dinner she had attended at the loft of architect Lord Norman Foster. “There were 160 people seated, and there was still so much room. And we had gorgeous views; his home is on the Thames,” Ms. Bucksbaum said.
Once night fell Thursday, the conversation about beautiful things turned to sculpture, furniture, paintings, and jewelry at the preview of the International Fine Art and Antique Dealers Show, which benefited the Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
“Look at the feet of this table. It’s simple and sophisticated,” an interior designer, Ann Pyne, said. She had already purchased the table and a breakfront at the booth of a Philadelphia dealer, John Alexander Inc.
Men were looking too, but needed validation from their wives. “You may hate it. I just want you to know that,” Roberto de Guardiola told his wife, interior designer Joanne de Guardiola, as he escorted her to a human portrait composed of fruit and flowers by Franz Weiner von Tamm.
By contrast, Ms. de Guardiola was confident her friend, designer Charlotte Moss, would like the owls on display of Henkel & Nichols. “You must look,” Ms. de Guardiola said.
