A couple of black swans, like two Odiles from Swan Lake, clad in glistening black feathers by Oscar de la Renta, glided into the Racquet Club the other night. This pair of pretty birds were giving a supper and a dance there for almost 200 fancy friends, and they thought it would be great fun to dress alike. I mean, such great fun.
Their frocks stood out in brilliant relief — which was the idea — because they greeted their guests against a dazzling background, a real winter wonderland. A stage set, really. If you didn’t come away humming the delicious de la Rentas, you could certainly have hummed the scenery.
It was one of the biggest and best divertissements of the New York winter season. The club’s reception rooms and library were an absolute forest of snow-covered trees. And the lighting! And the lovely, lovely lamb chops, oh my! Everyone you keep hearing about and reading about was there — and even some you don’t hear or read about all that often. Not everyone can be a star, hard though they may try.
If you haven’t guessed already, the two picturesque black swans were Carolyne Roehm and Katherine Bryan — and they had a co-host: none other than Ed Rollins, the political consultant, and Carolyne Roehm’s very best friend. These days, you simply can’t settle for one without the other. You will be pleased to hear that Ed was not dressed like a swan. Political consultants hardly ever do, you know. Republicans, Democrats and even Independents would think that was pretty silly!
So are you dying to know who was there, fluttering their wings? Well, the pharmaceutical heiress Libet Johnson, for one, stunning in silver beads that clung to her everything. Clinging to her as well was Frederic Fekkai, because, as we all know, that’s the way things are, aren’t they? Gayfryd and Saul Steinberg were there, too, and Barbara and Henryk de Kwiatkowski, and Blaine and Robert Trump, and Francesca Stanfill with Richard Nye, as ever. Felicia Taylor was out on the floor in full swing, as were Cari Modine in silver-gray satin and a diamond collar and Nina Griscom, who tries not to sit out anything.
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In the crowd were Marina and Francesco Galesi, Khalil Rizk, Kitty D’Alessio, Barbie Bancroft, Connie and Randy Jones, Duane Hampton with Monte Hackett, Casey Ribicoff, Sharon Hoge, Gail Hayman Haseltine and Dr. William Haseltine, Sam Reed, Lynn Nesbit, Gil Shiva, Nancy Collins, Jean Beard (she is Blaine Trump’s glamorous mother), Carol and George McFadden, Libby Mavroleon, Muffie and Sherrell Aston, Mario Buatta, John Dobkin, Senga and John Jay Mortimer, Joe Armstrong, Pierre Durand, Sean Driscoll, Douglas Cramer and — well, who’s left? Everyone told the swans the party went swimmingly. Oh, hahaha and hohoho.
Look for a night of tropical splendor — or maybe semitropical splendor — on Feb. 2 in Miami when ballet legend Edward Villella’s Miami City Ballet celebrates its 15th anniversary at the Jackie Gleason Theater. The company will dance Balanchine’s “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue” and then leap on over to the Stargazer Ball, which will be held in a spectacular tent on the site of the new Ritz-Carlton, South Beach. The new RC is being restored to all its classic glory and is set to open next fall. All sorts of New Yorkers and Floridians are expected at the ball, which is being chaired and underwritten by Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos and her husband, Paul Kanavos, whose company, Flag Luxury Properties, owns the Ritz-Carlton — so it sort of figures, wouldn’t you say? It’s all frightfully black-tie. Nothing gauche about dear old South Beach.
Richard Holbrooke, the high profile U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations — this is not a man who hides his light under a bushel — will be honored by the Harvard AIDS Institute at a dinner at the St. Regis on Jan. 9. Ambassador Holbrooke will receive the Institute’s Leadership Award, specifically for “his critical role in the recent UN Security Council summit that defined AIDS in Africa as an issue of national security.” UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is the honorary chairman of the evening, and the Hon. and Mrs. Frank G. Wisner are the co-chairs. As for the dinner committee, it’s distinguished enough to bring tears of joy to your eyes — the Hon. and Mrs. William McCormick Blair, Princess Firyal of Jordan, Lionel Pincus, Mrs. Lewis T. Preston, Marion and Elie Weisel, Maurice Tempelsman, Phyllis D. Collins, Maureen White and Steve Rattner, Mr. and Mrs. William Cafritz, Mr. and Mrs. Mark Littman, Mr. and Mrs. George Stevens and a prestigious handful of others of that ilk and stripe.