Parrish Art Museum Hosts Dapper Crowd At Annual MidSummer Party

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Known as the highlight of the summer season and promising to be the hippest social event of the summer for over 1,000 glittering Hamptonites, the Parrish Art Museum Midsummer Party lived up to its expectations.

Hosted by the Director and Board of the Parrish Art Museum, the sold-out event honored Beth Rudin DeWoody and Ross Bleckner for their remarkable contributions to cultural and humanitarian causes.  The crowd was a potpourri of notable Hamptons names from all industries - artists, collectors, entertainers, socialites, entrepreneurs, philathropists, and business leaders. New York's First Lady Michelle Paterson was also in attendance, explaining to an enthusiastically pleased crowd that her husband was "busy in Albany signing 6,681 vetoes to keep spending down."

The “dessert” of the evening’s festivities, the After Ten Party, was set up under a large air-conditioned tent in the museum’s lush arboretrum. An arrangement of cakes and chocolates invited guests to nibble, while the rest of the room glittered with amazing décor, music, and plenty of dancing. With notable guests including fashion designers Isaac Mizrahi, Phillip Lim, Donna Karan, and Nicole Miller, the crowd was certainly well-dressed, including some of the most dapper and colorful men’s blazers – blue seersucker, green stripes, khaki poplin, navy initialed, white linen - all with handkerchiefs tucked snuggly into front pockets.  The classy crowd moved through the cocktail tents, one with a large tree in the middle and another with a formal garden in the center.  While most of these Hamptonites danced lightly while sipping cocktails and mingling, some bumped up the revelry a few scores by having a round robin dance-off.  Young and old...this dance party didn't discriminate!

Overall, the fete was both fun and successful, raising $700,000 for the museum. The Parrish is home to a world-class permanent collection featuring more than 2,600 works of art by contemporary painters and sculptors; currently on view is Rackstraw Downes: Onsite Paintings, until August 8th.