The Bailey House Auction

Live auction on center stage.
We went last week to the 22nd annual Bailey House auction held at Roseland. Bailey House is an important organization in New York City that houses homeless people with AIDS, and you might remember that I wrote about the auction last year, when we were having medical problems with our kitten Bell.
Ted is on the board of directors at Bailey House. Many years ago we were involved with organizing the auction; in an early year in fact it was really up to the two of us plus our friend Rolf Nelson to pull the whole thing off. Now it's a big, successful, popular event. This year the auction raised almost $600,000 for homeless people with AIDS.
Chaired by Jeffrey Schneider from ABC News and his partner designer Jeffrey Pavaro, the auction was hosted by Simon Doonan from Barneys and Tim Gunn of Project Runway fame, though Tim was caught in Florida due to the winter storm.
There was lots of great art, photography, furniture and fashion to bid on. An open bar helps.

On the central stage, auctioneer Hugh Hildseley from Sotheby's auctioned off dream vacations and one-of-a-kind experiences like lunch with Diane Sawyer.
In the audience were mobs of men in suits.

Below is a James Rosenquist on the right, and hanging Moroccan lamps on the left. The display walls and platforms where designed and built by Stefan Beckman, who famously designed Marc Jacobs' fashion shows.

Quelle scene, sweetie.

We bid on these antique wooden cogs mounted on iron bases. They look like sculptures, and you know I love the combination of antique wood plus metal.

Photographer Bill Cunningham from The New York Times was there; I've written here before about Bill. Ted said hello to him and guess what, he took our picture. At long last, I was smiling into the flashing lens of the renowned photographer. And when we got the Sunday Times on Saturday night, there we were in the Styles Section on his "Evening Hours" party page.

Ha! Finally we're true New Yorkers.