NIGHTLIGHT: FIT Couture Council Summer Party 2010
Quintessentially is generously FIT’s Sponsor for the FIT Couture Council Summer Party 2010 and The FIT Couture Council Annual Luncheon that will Honor Karl Lagerfeld, and last night Whom You Know enjoyed The Couture Council's Summer Party held at The French Embassy. An excellent event that highlighted fashion at its best, we were pleased to see lots of old friends like Mover and Shaker Tiffany Koury, Author of Recessionistas, Alexandra Lebenthal (click here to win her book from Whom You Know), Jonathan Marder, George Heslin, Roger Webster and make new friends! The Whom You Know panel enjoyed meeting Liz Peek, Ruth Rabb who looked fabulous in green, Honorary Vice President of Polimodo in Florence (an affiliate of FIT), Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and Jamie, Tyler Williams, Daniel J. Entwistle, Naila Chbib, and Jason Tucker. Peachy Deegan appeared in Donna Ricco's Short Sleeve Slit Neck A-Line Dress in Watermelon and the Donna Ricco pearls to match. Jennifer Dixon attended with Peachy wearing The Heidi Dress, Dress of the Week by Hunter Dixon. Nick Hunt took fabulous pictures for Patrick McMullan and guests enjoyed lovely petite lobster rolls, croque monsieur and white wine. Well-attended and in a setting that could not be more beautiful, the FIT Couture Council Summer Party was a smashing success!!!
Inspired by their mutual passion for high quality service and attention to detail, Ben Elliot, Aaron Simpson and Paul Drummond joined forces in London to create Quintessentially, a private members club with a global concierge service, in December 2000.
Chairpeople were Yaz Hernandez, Alexandra Lebenthal, Charlotte Moss and Liz Peek.
Designers that attended included Anait Bian, Edmundo Castillo, Maria Cornejo, Francisco Costa, Christina Cota, Cathy Hardwick, Joan Helpern, Eric Javitz, Pat Kerr, Daryl Kerrigan,Gemma Khang, Emmet McCarthy, Nicole Miller, Ralph Rucci, Zang Toi, and Patricia Underwood and our Movers and Shakers Jennifer Dixon and Tiffany Koury.
Other fashion industry guests that attended included Linda Fargo, Willa Kim (costume designer), Carson Kressley, Patrick McDonald, PJ Pascual, Helen O'Hagan, Lynn Yeager and of course Dr. Joyce Brown, President of FIT and Dr. Valerie Steele, director of The Museum at FIT.
Other guest that attended included Real Housewives of New York Alex McCord and Simone Kempen, James Andrews, Melissa Berkelhammer, Deeda Blair, Claudia Cisneros, Cece Cord,Suzi Cornish, Carmen D'Alessio, Christophe de Menil, Congress Woman Carolyn Maloney, Kathleen Doyle, Peter Davis, Martha Kramer Fox, Douglas Hannant, Anthony Haden-Guest,Jane Holzer, Eleanora and Michael Kennedy, Yue-Sai Kan, Mariana Kaufman, Mrs. Ray Kelly, Scott McBee, Carlos Ponce, Judy and Peter Price, Jean Shafiroff, Hunt Slonem, Emma Snowdon-Jones, Barbara Tober, Tia Walker, and Alexa Winner.
What: The annual Summer Party is New York’s biggest August fashion event. While so many
vacation this month, the fashion world is here preparing for Fashion Week. Designers, Upper East Side women and downtown hipsters all come together to make the event a success. As is tradition, Dr. Joyce Brown, president of FIT, gave the summer party toast. Dr. Joyce Brown announced that the FIT Annual Luncheon that will be held in Septmeber was completely sold out and urged people to become a member of the Couture Council.
Quintessentially was the generous sponsor for the event.
Where: The Cultural Services Building of the French Embassy,972 Fifth Avenue between 78 and 79 Street. The building’s architect is Stanford White of McKim, Mead and White. The Style of the Architecture has kept with the feel of the Gilded Age.
Historically the building is known as the Payne Whitney New York City Townhouse.
The Cultural Services of the Embassy is responsible for facilitating “cultural exchange” between America and France, a role the can be creative, informative or merely administrative.
When: Tuesday, August 17, Six until Eight o’clock.
Why: The Couture Council Summer Party kicked off the ticket sales for The Couture Council
annual benefit luncheon. This year the luncheon will honor Karl Lagerfeld.
The Couture Council of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) will honor Karl Lagerfeld with a special award on Friday, September 10th at a benefit luncheon at Avery Fisher Hall, New York City. Dr. Valerie Steele, director of The Museum at FIT, announced, “In recognition of his unparalleled role as a creative force in the world of fashion, we have chosen to bestow on Karl Lagerfeld, The Couture Council Fashion Visionary Award. This unique award was created exclusively for Karl Lagerfeld. Since his arrival at Chanel in 1983, Karl Lagerfeld has brought the company to the forefront of innovation and creativity and has continuously maintained Chanel's position as the most coveted fashion label in the world. Not only is Lagerfeld an inimitable designer, he is also an acclaimed photographer, publisher, renowned collector, and a true connoisseur.”
About The Couture Council:
The Couture Council is a membership group dedicated to supporting The Museum at FIT, a specialized museum of fashion. The Couture Council helps make it possible for The Museum to mount world-class exhibitions of fashion, to acquire important objects for its permanent collection, and to organize public programs, such as the annual fashion symposium. The Couture Council accomplishes these goals through collecting membership dues and by organizing fundraising events such as the annual Couture Council Awards Luncheon, which presents a chosen designer with the Couture Council Award for Artistry of Fashion.
Couture Council Annual Membership is $1,000 per individual or couple, or $350 for Young Associates (under the age of 35). Membership is tax deductible to the extent provided by law. Please make checks payable to the Educational Foundation for the Fashion Industries. Mail checks to The Museum at FIT, attention: Couture Council, Seventh Avenue at 27th Street, Director's Office, Room E304, New York City 10001-5992.
Members of the Couture Council receive invitations to at least five special events a year, including behind-the-scenes tours of The Museum's collection and exhibitions, opening receptions, and visits to the ateliers of fashion designers in New York. Couture Council members are also the first to receive notice of the annual Couture Council Artistry of Fashion Award luncheon.
In addition, Couture Council Members receive complementary admittance for two to all Museum educational programs, as well as the annual fashion symposium, which includes an invitation to meet the speakers at a cocktail reception at the home of Valerie Steele, director and chief curator, The Museum at FIT.
The Couture Council of The Museum at FIT recently established a board of directors that includes Liz Peek (Interim Chair), Yaz Hernandez (Interim Vice Chair), Adrienne Vitadinni,Alexandra Lebenthal, Charlotte Moss, Suzi Cordish, Michelle Harper, Celia Hegyi, Eleanora Kennedy, Michele Gerber Klein, Peter G. Scotese, Jean Shafiroff, and Whitney Wolfe.
About The Museum at FIT:
The Museum at FIT is the only museum in New York City dedicated solely to the art of fashion. Best known for its innovative and award-winning exhibitions, which have been described by Roberta Smith in The New York Times as “ravishing,” the museum has a collection of more than 50,000 garments and accessories dating from the 18th century to the present. Like other fashion museums, such as the Musée de la Mode, the Mode Museum, and the Museo de la Moda, The Museum at FIT collects, conserves, documents, exhibits, and interprets fashion. The museum’s mission is to advance knowledge of fashion through exhibitions, publications, and public programs.
Upcoming exhibitions include Eco-Fashion, Going Green, on view May 25 - November 26, 2010, and Japan Fashion Now on view September 17, 2010 - January 8, 2011.
Eco-Fashion: Going Green is an exhibition exploring the evolution of the fashion industry’s multifaceted and complex relationship with the environment. By examining the past two centuries of fashion’s good—and bad— environmental and ethical practices. Eco-Fashion: Going Green provides historical context for today’s eco-fashion movement. Presented chronologically and featuring more than 100 garments, accessories, and textiles, the exhibition uses contemporary methods for “going green” as a framework to study the past. The objects displayed touch upon at least one of six major themes: the re-purposing and recycling of materials, fiber origins, textile dyeing and production, quality of craftsmanship, labor practices, and the treatment of animals. Curated by Jennifer Farley and Colleen Hill, the exhibition features some of the finest examples of 21st-century sustainable fashions by current, cutting-edge labels, including Alabama Chanin, Edun, FIN, and NOIR.
Japan Fashion Now is the first exhibition to explore contemporary Japanese fashion in all its radical creativity, including not only avant-garde high fashion, but also street and sub-cultural styles, menswear, and new designers. Set in a dramatic mise-en-scene evoking Tokyo’s iconic cityscape, approximately 100 ensembles will be on display. Designers featured include Jun Takahashi of Undercover (described by journalist Suzy Menkes as “the essence of Japanese cool”); Hirooka Naoto, the designer behind h.NAOTO, Japan’s most successful Gothic-Punk-Lolita fashion empire; and new designer brands such as Sacai, Visvim, Phenomenon, and Matohu. “Japan continues to be on the cutting edge, even the bleeding edge, of fashion,” says exhibition curator, Dr. Valerie Steele. “But it has moved far beyond the cerebral deconstructed looks of the 1980s Japanese fashion revolution.”
Another lovely event by Jonathan Marder! Fabulous job, flawless execution.
About FIT:
The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), of which The Museum at FIT is a part, is a college of art and design, business and technology that educates more than 10,000 students annually. FIT is a college of the State University of New York (SUNY), and offers 44 majors leading to the AAS, BFA, BS, MA, and MPS degrees. Visit www.fitnyc.edu
About Quintessentially:
Quintessentially's discerning members around the world enjoy an array of benefits carefully selected to make a difference in their lives. Their team of experts are on hand for everything from solving pressing practical problems such as dinner reservations and sourcing a good nanny to advice on the latest fashion collections, travel experiences, lifestyle trends, spur-of-the-moment chartered yachts, theatre and nightlife recommendations plus much more - providing nothing but the best insider and specialist access, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
With 55 offices worldwide, Quintessentially has quickly become a global support system for its members, wherever they may be. Visit www.Quintessentially.com
