Bvlgari and R&R Celebrate Summer!

Reader, If I could impart one piece of nightlife advice it would be the following. Don’t start off a night with a terrible hangover when the BVLGARI Diagono Watch Collection, and Rock & Republic “Summer at The Beatrice Inn” are on the itinerary. Furthermore, it’s best not to attend an event celebrating anything having more than two consecutive consonants in its name with said terrible hangover, espcially if it's being held at Frank Gehry’s sleek IAC Building. The elegance of it all will make you feel like the tuna tar-tar being passed around. Instead, don your best Proenza Schouler with the prior knowledge that you’ll be bumping into beautiful people like Sean Avery, Simon Spurr, and New York Jets center Nick Mangold, and that later at the Beatrice, you’ll be dancing with Kirsten Dunst, Sia, Emma Snowdon-Jones and May Anderson. A cautionary tale.

The striking IAC building is certainly a thing of beauty—the inside is stylish with minimal adornments, aside from the dazzling Diagono watches gleaming from their display cases. A gathering of gorgeous people examines the watches and projections on the large, bare walls. I take several peach and mango martinis from a beautiful waiter, knowing that imbibing should instantly make being surrounded by this grotesque amount of sophistication feel more tolerable. It works. Soon enough I’m blowing air kisses, shaking hands with the best of them, bothering Anna Wintour’s new intern/Rangers star Sean Avery, and listening to people test out fake British accents. Simon Spurr is considerate of the hangover: “I don’t understand how some people can just get up after a long night, hit the gym and feel normal,” the twenty-something designer says. The peach mango martinis work so well, I end up staying longer than expected. I try on a few of the lustrously crafted watches, and enjoy the cool summer night on the substantial back patio.

We arrive at the Beatrice much later than intended. But Rock & Republic’s “Summer at The Beatrice Inn” has been mercifully extended for the entire evening. Already enveloped in a martini haze, we dash to the all-too familiar bar, and are reunited with the Inn’s usual suspects. I recognize Sia, the dog-loving musician whose CD, Some People Have Real Problems, I’ve had on repeat on the office surround-sound these past few weeks. I say hello to the sprite songstress, and tell her I love her dog. She looks at me quizzically, and I relent to explain myself.

James Murphy

Julia Restoin Roitfeld with friend and President of Rock & Republic Andrea Bernholtz.

I rejoin my friends as standard Beatrice whispers ensue, “Did you see Kirsten Dunst is here?” my friend B says excitedly. I look over to see the lovely ingénue dressed in a white tank and hat, waiting patiently in line for the bathroom. I walk past her, not having a good enough opener prepared, and find Andrea Bernholtz, President of Rock & Republic. I decide to do a bit of investigative journalism on the new Rock & Republic cosmetics line they are celebrating. “It’s very sexy, dramatic and provocative. But overall, we just wanted an excuse to throw an amazing party.” With LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy on the tables, Andre Balazs, Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler, Kelly Bensimon, and Julia Restoin Roitfeld, present and accounted for, and an open bar that stretched until closing time, I’d say she was successful in her excuse.

Later, we finish off our drinks on the dance floor, and at one point initiate some kind of invisible jump rope contest. It’s one of the telling reasons my first hangover never quite healed itself, and I’m faced with another, doubly worse. There will be no BVLGARI/Beatrice parties for me tonight.

May Anderson

Revelers at the Beatrice