The Butterfly Effect
Tory Burch and Co. Raise $1.4 Million for the Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Party planner Bronson Van Wyck used sleight of hand to turn the Pierre hotel's ballroom into a pleasure garden for the Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center's spring gala, sponsored by David Yurman, last night. There were pots of rosemary and freshly picked tulips on tables, and, in lieu of hanging vines, thousands of hand-painted butterflies crafted out of feathers. "Decadent on a budget," event co-chair Tory Burch assured us. Hey, those butterflies are helping to raise money for a cause.
There's not too much penny-pinching in the designer's near future, though—Burch heads to Seoul next month to cut the tape on a new store, followed by openings in Rome and London in the fall. She got plenty of friends to join her at the Pierre, including Tamara Mellon, who has been busy lending the Jimmy Choo touch to a limited-edition Ugg sheepskin boot. The London transplant has also been settling into her new digs on the Upper East Side. "I still feel like the new girl in town," Mellon said. "I need to do a housewarming."
Mary J. Blige performed after dinner, but the evening (which raised a total of $1.4 million) wasn't all about dressing up and clinking glasses. Breast cancer survivor Hoda Kotb knows this better than anyone. "If you do make it through something like this, you get a four-word takeaway: 'You can't scare me.' It's very empowering," the Today show anchor explained. "When you realize your life has margins, you stop wasting time."
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