“Who are these people?” is not the kind of question you expect to hear at a social ball. And yet it was asked more than once last Thursday at the Frick Collection Young Fellows Ball, a peacock gala on the early spring social calendar.
“We are the member group of the Frick, ages 21 to 40, so the next generation is art enthusiasts,” said Paul Arnhold, 37, a glassblower and real estate developer who is one of the prom’s presidents.
That answers part of the question, but the fact that there were so few recognizable names on the cover that the organizers shared, and so many “random young people,” as one guest put it, stuck.
Maybe it was the pandemic. This was the Frick’s first ball since 2019, and it took place in uncharted territory: the Breuer Building on Madison Avenue (formerly home to the Whitney Museum), while the 1914 Gilded Age mansion on Fifth Avenue is undergoing renovation.
At around 8:30 a.m., 500 merry young things burst into the lobby and basement, sequins and pink party dresses—so much pink—colored the Brutalist Breuer bunker.
“Everyone dressed up for a Frick event, but it’s a Whitney building,” said Lizzie Asher, a philanthropist and entrepreneur who wore a pink and mauve dress by Carolina Herrera, one of the evening’s sponsors. (Wes Gordon, husband of Mr. Arnhold, is the creative director of the label.)
“I can’t say no to a sequin,” said Sarah Hoover, a former Gagosian gallery director, who is also listed on the invitation as another ball chair. She was standing at the lobby bar and hugging her friend Indré Rockefeller. Nearby, Alessia Fendi held on to a sparkling multicolored handbag. (“Fendi of course,” she said.)
In the basement was a DJ, another bar and a marquee where guests could sit and rotate a camera for a 360-degree photo. “It’s the atmosphere of the bar mitzvah,” said one attendee.
Few guests took the opportunity to explore the galleries on the top floor of the museum, perhaps because they couldn’t see the old masters in their familiar home. Or maybe they weren’t there to see art.
By 11 p.m., the bar mitzvah vibes continued as guests politely danced to Rihanna’s “Work” and Doja Cat’s “Say So.” Others took refuge in the lobby, where they could chat or crash like fallen magnolias on the starkly minimalist benches of de Breuer.
One such flower was actress Zión Moreno, who plays Luna La, a glamorous and stylishly cruel teenager on the “Gossip Girl” reboot. What would her character think of this scintillating affair?
“Luna would throw up,” Mrs. Moreno said. “But Zion loves it.”
