A cocktail party was held last night at the upper East Side home of decorator Charlotte Moss. This party kicked off the fundraising drive that culminates in the annual Couture Council luncheon where Dries Van Noten will make a rare trip to New York to receive the 2009 Couture Council Award for Artistry of Fashion.
Over a hundred people showed up on a warm and muggy night. A lot a familiar faces were out in the garden enjoying cocktails. They included Ralph Rucci, Hamish Bowles, David Chu, Christian Cota, Somers Farkas, Amy Fine Collins, Cece Cord, Arnold Scaasi, to name just a few. And quite a number of photographers were on hand, including Bill Cunningham and Patrick McMullan to record the event.
Co-hosts for the evening was FIT museum director Dr. Valerie Steele and deputy director Patricia Mears. We also ran into Charles B. Froom, the exhibition designer responsible for setting up the museum’s exhibitions and who we interviewed for our Masters of Fashion series.(see article)
The Couture Council is a membership group of fashion enthusiasts that helps support the exhibitions and programs of The Museum at FIT, a specialized museum of fashion. Previous recipients of the Couture Council Artistry of Fashion Award are Isabel Toledo in 2008 (a prescient choice made before Michelle Obama selected Toledo’s design to wear on Inauguration Day), Alber Elbaz of Lanvin in 2007, and Ralph Rucci, the recipient of the first award in 2006.
Currently on exhibition at The Museum at FIT, Isabel Toledo: Fashion from the Inside Out, a mid-career retrospective displaying approximately 70 iconic looks from the mid- 1980s to the present, including the ensemble worn by First Lady Michelle Obama on Inauguration Day. Also on exhibition, Fashion & Politics, a chronological exploration of over 200 years of politics as expressed through fashion.
-Ernest Schmatolla
