When you're young, you play a game that goes something like "If you could have dinner with five people, alive or dead, who would they be?" Lenny Letter's 2nd Anniversary cocktail party partnered with Cole Haan to bring all of our picks into one room.
Led by Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner, the creators of Lenny Letter and the hit HBO television show Girls, a group of notable women and men amassed in The Jane Hotel Ballroom. A perfect setting for such a soiree, it felt like Ernest Hemingway or F. Scott Fitzgerald could walk through the door at any moment. Those on the list that did: Malin Akerman of Billions fame, Julia Stiles, Greta Gerwig, Zadie Smith, most of the cast of Girls, and a few from the fashion crowd like Jenna Lyons, Christian Siriano, and models Hari Nef and Andreja Pejic. It was refreshing to have the attendees celebrated for their artistic achievements and creative minds, instead of their usual star power.
A team from Girls Write Now, a program that mentors underserved young women to harness their literary voice, was creating poems on the fly with old-school typewriters. Simply provide a few words or a subject matter and the extraordinary women would create a poem inspired by you. @hallithbates was busy sketching portraits on a tablet, distributing custom caricatures to guests. In another corner, Tanwi Nandini Islam, founder of Hi Wildflower, mixed custom fragrances based on empowering words like "confident, open-hearted, and grounded." You are going to be hearing a lot more about this fabulous lady on the horizon, as she modestly didn't mention her published novel or her fantastic creative writing skills. Keep on wearing many hats, Tanwi.
Lena and Jenni themselves recently published an article on Lenny and penned, "We want to be an example, letting you know that the passion — and shared connection — of two women is an unstoppable force." This sentiment certainly permeated the anniversary event and we're in full support of this mission. At Lenny, every story is worth telling. What's yours?
[Photo by Neil Rasmus/BFA.com]
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