Out & About
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Is it too early to think about Fashion Week? No way — the circus starts September 4 and, on the following day, the Couture Council of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology will award its Artistry of Fashion Award to an Israeli designer Alber Elbaz, who has most recently brought his vision to the historic Paris fashion house Lanvin.
The council held a cocktail party at the home of Charlotte Moss last night to get people in an autumn-awards-lunch mood, as well as in the mood to raise money for the archives of the museum, which are drawn upon for exhibitions there and heavily used by students at the school.
The museum’s director, Valerie Steele, said the selection committee “wholeheartedly” felt that Mr. Elbaz deserved the award for making clothes that are chic and feminine but also easy to wear.
“He moves fashion forward in a way that doesn’t upstage the wearer,” Ms. Steele said, explaining how the big sleeves seen in his latest collection “didn’t look exaggerated, they looked beautiful.”
Mr. Elbaz did not attend the event, but his presence is expected at the September 5 awards luncheon, which is to be held at the Rainbow Room.
Chatter at the party was still very much about the summer: Barbara Tober will be busy in Millbrook this weekend for the Fitch’s Corner Horse Trials; Lisa Perry is looking forward to wearing an outfit with feathers to Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center benefit on Saturday night.
Last night’s attendees had their own fashion stories to tell: Marilyn Megargel and Petria May both wore clothing formerly owned by Nan Kempner. There was lots of color and lots of white, befitting a summer party, but Ms. Steele wore black. “I’m a Goth girl at heart,” she said. She is working on an exhibit about Goth fashion.
The leaders of the Couture Council like how their involvement brings them to parties with fashion tastemakers (the guest list last night included designer Mary McFadden and the editor of Teen Vogue, Kimball Hastings).
“I want to be an educated consumer. I like to see the roots of what’s coming out now,” a chairwoman of the council, Sarah Wolfe, said.
