FashionEtc.com May 3rd, 2024

Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson, and Christina Aguilera were just a few of the talented women Mary J. Blige tapped for the second annual Mary J. Blige Honors Concert benefit on Sunday.

So who would Blige be singing with? “It’s a surprise,” the Gucci-clad performer told FashionEtc before the show.

For the duet, she joined Anita Baker on Baker’s classic “Caught Up in the Rapture”; the song, Blige explained to the audience, was an inspiration to her when she was starting out in the music business.

Blige had the crowd dancing in the aisles to some of her own hits, including “No More Drama” and “Just Fine.” Other highlights included performances by Jill Scott and Corinne Bailey Rae. Aguilera sang her ballad “Beautiful” and the very svelte Jennifer Hudson blew the roof off with “I’m Every Woman.”

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Central Park: It's one of the most special things about Manhattan, with over 800 acres of bucolic nature within our bustling metropolis. The Women's Committee of the Central Park Conservancy Annual Frederick Law Olmsted Awards Luncheon, aka "the Hat Lunch," is all about supporting our wonderful park.

There are also the hats, of course, coordinated with the outfits, mulled over for weeks, sometimes months, in advance. Some of us choose not to wear hats, but luckily for us, chic-dom reigns supreme among many fashionistas, with some humor thrown in here and there.

This year, however, with the rainy forecast, I thought I might wear a hat after all. I Googled "umbrella hat" several days before the event, and found a green one shaped like a palm tree. Maybe that would go with my vintage Yigal Azrouël jacket trimmed with bits of Astroturf (it looks better than it sounds), I thought for a second. Luckily, my optimism about the weather—and my better fashion sense—prevailed.

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Talented, beautiful and brilliant: Cora Sheibani-Bischofberger is here from London, which gave Farhad Farman-Farmaian (also here from London) and me the perfect excuse to give a spring lunch and introduce her to some of our favorite New Yorkers. Cora makes the most exquisite jewelry, suitable for women of all ages, cutting-edge and elegant at the same time, and everyone was wowed.

I asked Cora to tell me what inspires her. "When I look at beautiful women, I want them to wear great designs. The way fashion designers want women to look great in clothes, I want women to also have that in jewelry," she said.

The setting for the lunch was the exceptional private room of La Grenouille, filled with extraordinary flowers and the warmth of wood paneling, with the sunlight streaming through the second-floor window. Serena Boardman had a good catch up with Rena Sindi, who was visiting for a few days, while Marcia Mishaan had a chat with Patty (Smyth) McEnroe, who will be performing with B.B. King on May 12.

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Fascinators, houndstooth, gloves, tiaras and crowns: Who needs to go to the royal wedding when you can go to the museum dance?

The American Museum of Natural History held its Spring Dance on the eve of the nuptials everyone has been talking about for months, so the dress code, "bold and British, hats and gloves are welcome," inspired many to unleash their most wonderful (and sometimes wacky) creative outfits.

"I had that crown when I was 11 years old," said Peter Davis as a "king" strolled by with his "queen" on his arm, and he had the photo on his iPhone to prove it.

Jill Kargman, in a stunning off-white and black Marc Jacobs, was wearing her own interpretation of the dress code. With her two subtle wrist tattoos and the wispy black accents on her dress, "it looks like the bride of Edward Gorey if he were straight," she said cleverly.

Museum chief philanthropy officer Peter Lyden introduced me to the charming Steve Guttenberg.

"I'm a friend of the museum. Every year there's a fabulous party here that's thrown with such class and such style, and along with all the beautiful women and all the great clothes, we're really here to celebrate this house, one of the greatest houses in America. You can come here every day and learn something new," said the star, whose latest film, Novel Romance, will close the New York Film Festival next week.

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