Compared with its all-out pre-party, complete with some 700 young and arty New York City scenesters and a raucous performance by Grimes, the Guggenheim Museum’s International Gala felt a little quiet. Indeed, it was a decidedly adult event—elegant and reverential in equal measure with a humbling amount of cultural talent in one room. Upon arrival at the iconic Frank Lloyd Wright building, guests were ushered to the downstairs Peter B. Lewis Theater for an eight-minute preview of November Steps, a reimagined dance of the Minsa Craig ballet, choreographed by Tom Gold Dance, that will premiere in its entirety later this month.
Art world stalwarts came out in full force: architect Peter Marino (clad in trademark leather and little else), Rashid Johnson, Cindy Sherman, and Stefano Tonchi. For fashion’s man of the hour, Raf Simons, his devoted celebrity following paid respects as well. (The gala, like the pre-party, was hosted by Dior, Simons’s former employer.) Dakota Johnson, Kiernan Shipka, and Leelee Sobieski channeled Simons’s vision of a Dior swan each in a unique way, all in intricately made cream-colored couture gowns. Emily Blunt and Riley Keough both chose a more modern aesthetic in less delicate but equally stunning Dior, in sharp red and crisp black, respectively. All dresses, of course, were monuments to Simons’s total devotion to elegant femininity achieved through both simplicity and razor-sharp attention to detail.
After the performance, partygoers were led upstairs to the rotunda for an intimate-feeling dinner. Magenta peonies, coxcombs, and hydrangeas decorated each table, almost out of a Richard Mosse photograph. Simons’s pal, the hyper-fashionable rapper and actor A$AP Rocky, was fittingly sat next to Dior Homme creative director Kris Van Assche, and basked in the interconnectedness of the creative worlds on hand that evening: “Art, it can be music, fashion, sculpture, or on canvas—it’s all an expression of life. It’s about how you showcase and translate it. When I see good art, it makes me smile. To see these worlds intertwine [and] I’m a rapper here, it’s just a beautiful time for 2015.” When dinner ended, guests roamed the Alberto Burri exhibit currently on view. Another lovely night at (and for) the museum.
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