The High-Low Mix
YSL Sponsors a Night of Uptown Opera and Downtown Dancing
The sparkly set doesn't go to the opera as much as it did in centuries past, but in recent years, Yves Saint Laurent has been partnering with the Met in an effort to reverse the trend. Last night, the fashion house sponsored the season premiere of Rossini's Le Comte Ory, an ambitious evening that began with cocktails on the Met's Grand Tier and ended up, six hours later, at an after-party downtown at the Bunker Club.
The early going saw Lou Reed kibitzing with the Olsen sisters and Hugh Dancy extricating himself from the train of Claire Danes' gown. There were fewer opera aficionados, perhaps, than at a typical night at the Met, but plenty of enthusiasm for the stargazing and extra-social rituals. "It's not like the cinema where you put on your trainers—I mean, not that I would put on trainers to go to the cinema," explained Claudia Schiffer, who'd flown in from L.A. for the occasion. "What I love about the opera is the silence—just listening to the music. No one is talking, no one is eating. There's just a lot of respect for the arts onstage."
About that: What is the etiquette, exactly? Olivia Munn had stowed her velvet gloves in her YSL clutch for the benefit of her BlackBerry. "I know how to text blind, so I think either way, whatever the protocol is, I'll be OK," she assured us. YSL's Stefano Pilati was doing the real reaching out, though. "In Paris, I never get out of the office at eight o'clock," he explained between handshakes and photo ops. "That's why I sponsor it in New York."
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