“I hear a bloodcurdling shriek. A partygoer’s heel scrapes and skids on the exposed wood staircase. She tumbles down.”
The Art and design elite are out in full force right now in the Hamptons. The East Hampton Antiques & Design Show benefit keeps growing every year. Maybe it’s the born-and-bred upstate New Yorker in me. Trooping around the damp grass on three acres of colonial Mulford Farm on James Lane is one of my favorite socials.
Honorary Chair and superstar interior designer David Kleinberg huddles with other design stars like Aerin Lauder, David Netto and Donna Karan. I spot Carolyn Murphy, Nathan Lane, Katie Couric and JR Mumford. “It’s become a highly curated event,” Debbie Druker, the president of the Historical Society, tells me. “It attracts top designers who love supporting the Historical Society and shopping the show.”
It’s a shopping safari. I uncover Art Deco treasures and a vintage Georg Hensen brooch. There are 50+ antiques and art dealers. I swing by Max Eicke and Irina Kro Eicke at their booth Max ID NY. Max’s parents, retired art and antiques dealers, ran the much-loved Christy’s Art Center in Sag Harbor and showed at this fair decades ago. “A really nice coming-back moment,” Max says, “to connect again to their roots, and reconnect with longtime clients and friends.” Long live tradition!
“There’s a sense of mischievous frivolity, given there’s no host that lives here.”
It’s Saturday night and Holiday House founder Iris Dankner glows in a Grecian gown at the door of the summer designer showhouse and her annual White Party benefit. Iris, a decorator and author, launched the fundraiser 17 years ago to benefit the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. She is a sweetheart. Every time she shakes my hand, I’m reminded she has the softest hands I’ve ever felt (second only to Patti LuPone).
Holiday House is always a proper party. 400+ people mill about 11,200 square feet and eight bedrooms’ worth of a modern Water Mill mansion. The showcase is chaired by Christian Siriano, Campion Platt and Andrea Stark. I wander the designers’ creations from room to room. There’s a sense of mischievous frivolity, given there’s no host that lives here.
A breast cancer survivor, Iris is surrounded by family and the room quiets. “We won’t stop until we can live in a world without breast cancer,” she declares at the end of her speech. Her words elicits more than a few tears.
The DJ realizes the neighbors are far enough away to avoid reproach and cranks it up. I’m on the top floor. I hear a bloodcurdling shriek. A partygoer’s heel scrapes and skids on the exposed wood staircase. She tumbles down. Everyone recovers. My friends vow to stick to the flowing lawn outside if we plan on revisiting the Whispering Angel rosé. – JANET MERCEL
East Hampton Antiques & Design photographs by Rossa Cole / Holiday House photographs by Richard Lewin
