On Monday night around the fountain at Lincoln Center, two kinds of gowns flooded the plaza in a whirling mass: purple choir gowns, worn by graduating students of New York University, and pricey designer gowns, worn by patrons of the American Ballet Theater, arriving at the Metropolitan Opera House.
“I like my gown,” said Samantha Winer, who had just graduated from the N.Y.U. Silver School of Social Work.
“But you’re more interested in doing good than being rich,” her grandmother told her.
Who says you can’t do both? After all, this is a city that would be in big trouble without the blood sport it calls fund-raising.
And the American Ballet Theater wasn’t messing around with its 75th anniversary jubilee celebration. From the balcony of the opera house, women in gowns to rival the architecture looked down as more than 1,000 guests arrived.
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Who’s who from the week’s A-list dinners, celebrity gatherings and“I love people-watching from a balcony,” said Giovanna Battaglia, a fashion editor and stylist who wore a flowing Carolina Herrera ball-gown skirt that pooled behind.
Inside, as chimes rang out, guests including Gigi Mortimer, Indre Rockefeller, Muffie Potter Aston and Susan Fales-Hill drank Champagne and headed for their seats.
Hamish Bowles, the Vogue editor, dashed up to his parterre box in purple Manolo opera pumps and a matching velvet blazer. At his side, Amy Fine Collins wore a glittering floral jacket by Tom Ford. Several women were also dressed in traditional Japanese attire.
“They didn’t get the memo that it’s all about China right now,” a guest said.
Lauren Santo Domingo, or LSD as she is called by people who care deeply about a social figure who owns an Internet fashion company (Moda Operandi), looked hallucinatory in a flower-appliqué gown by Diego Della Valle. Photographers went wild.
“It’s a very New York moment,” she said.
As evidence, a huge promotional projection on the stage curtain unabashedly announced Escada as the sponsor of the evening, which raised $2.3 million. Caroline Kennedy appeared on a video screen to make a speech, as did Joel Grey; Sigourney Weaver did so in person.
The ballet company performed several excerpts, including one to the song “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” with choreography by Paul Taylor. It ended with a line of dancers, hands outstretched to the audience.
During intermission, and before guests stormed a party tent for dinner and dancing in the adjoining Damrosch Park, David H. Koch snapped a picture of the longtime ballet supporter Blaine Trump, as if he were a kid at a prom. (She wore “vintage something,” she said.)
Mr. Koch’s name appears on what was once the New York State Theater next door. He will soon be philanthropic neighbors with David Geffen, whose name is going onto the New York Philharmonic’s building in September. Mr. Koch also donates to American Ballet Theater.
“I’m the sugar daddy,” he declared about funding the company.
Brother, can you spare a million?
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