Friends of The Costume Institute West Coast Dinner

Photo source: Andreas Branch/Patrick McMullan.com

For the third year in a row it was a very special night for Friends of The Costume Institute on the West Coast.  With record-breaking crowds, which have now exceeded 250,000 attendees and the show being extended into August, it was an intimate dinner party at the Beverly Hills Hotel to honor Andrew Bolton, the curator of The Costume Institute’s Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty and the exhibit.

Hosted by Susan Casden and Cameron Silver in the Polo Private Dining Room (with fried chicken and biscuits as the surprise hit dinner entree), guests from Met curator Harold Koda, Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte, Peggy Moffitt, James Galanos, Abigail Spencer, Perrey Reeves (who had literally just wrapped the last episode of Entourage), Jennifer Hale, and Kimberly Brooks joined together for cocktails and an intimate dinner.

Andrew was delighted  to see almost every guest don McQueen.  The Blonde and The Brunette team made a great showing.  I wore a special black satin dress with exquisite gold embroidery from the Angels and Demons Collection (and Andrew noticed that it was quite unique and we discussed it at length).  Susan radiated in a previously unseen dress sprinkled with gold “scales”  from the Plato’s Atlantis Collection with Cameron and Jeff in great McQueen blazers.  Cameron even thanked everyone “for dressing up for the chicest night in L.A.” and then Andrew Bolton spoke and took questions from the group, acknowledging that, “this is really becoming one of my favorite events of the year.  The exhibition has been such a heartwarming experience and I love seeing so many of the women tonight in his designs”.  When asked about how Alexander McQueen might feel about the overwhelming public response and exhibit attendance, Andrew quoted Sarah Burton and said “he’d love the crowds, the banners with his name and the lines wrapped around the block but most of all the attendees in McQueen”.

As the evening drew to a close, guests each received a Savage Beauty catalog which Andrew personally signed.  There is also an in-depth interview with Andrew in Bergdorf Goodman’s Pre-Fall Magazine.  It’s worth the read.

– Nancy Jane Goldston, The Brunette