Some Beauties, Ruffians and "New Girls" Stepped Out

[Antonia Thompson]

Go HERE for more photos from this event

What do you get when you take designers Brian Wolk and Claude Morais of chic label Ruffian, hauteur/director/producer David Foote (a true Triple Threat), and a hip attractive crowd of fashionistas, art muses, and socials? Just add the Rum Punch and you have "New Girls": An exhibition of Paintings and Portraits by David Foote at L Gallery Studio downtown on Tuesday night.

There were LOTS of social options last night, but this stop was a very necessary first. It was truly a treat to check out David Foote’s works, which evoke edgy beauty and emotion from the sketches. I found the “New Girls” works to be quite colorful, despite being in black and white. YES, they are that good if I can see color, beauty and emotion behind the black and white. His works were the backdrop of our photo ops, so pay attention. Mr. Foote is brilliant.

All of this started when David Foote was just a boy expressing himself through sketches – making his way from doing them on simple napkins to now – having those sketches and compilations of sketches displayed on a gallery wall for some of New York’s hottest to see. In the other room was another arm of the exhibit entitled “Faces”, in which the artist “developed a process that allowed him to digitize one of his paintings and compress it into a line, then use that line to draw the portrait series “Faces” (I stole that description from his website). I am not entirely sure what that means, but if I were to interpret that I would say it’s kind of like a DJ remixing a song to diversify it. They were very cool. One of his subjects/muses was Antonia Thompson; we got a picture of her by her portrait! As you can see, the artist captures an amazing essence of his subjects.

The event was fun and breezy and the tone was purely fun thanks to the attendees. So who were the guests of guests last night? Brian Wolk and Claude Morais of Ruffian, David Foote, Associate Fashion Editor Noria Morales from Lucky, US PR Director Ashley Wick from Anya Hindmarch, Model/Actress Annabel Vartanian, socialite Dabney Mercer , the fashionable and lovely Chau Ngo, PR Denizen Kristian Laliberte, Designer Nicole Romano, Robert Burke Associates’s Antonia Thompson, PMc’s David X Prutting, , and Fashion/Beauty Blogger Douglas Marshall.