For the past 10 years, Dior has helped the Guggenheim host a spectacular fundraiser benefit each fall. The partnership between the French fashion house and the global art authority was forged in part by Richard Armstrong, the outgoing director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation—so Wednesday’s Dior-hosted International Gala was a bittersweet one.
The event is called the International Gala not because the room is filled with many accents—although that is true, owing to the stylish executives attending on behalf of Dior—but because the museum is not merely a New York institution. Its various outposts can famously be found in Venice, Bilbao, and soon in Abu Dhabi—a passion project of Armstrong’s, who masterminded the ongoing Frank Ghery-designed project—and the gala raises funds for them all.
Guests gathered at 6:30 to tour the art on view, notably “Alex Katz: Gathering” (on view through February 20, 2023), which wraps the museum’s spiral walls in the artist’s figurative masterpieces. The likes of Alexandra Daddario, Thuso Mbedu, Rachel Brosnahan, Isabela Merced, Christian Serratos, Nina Dobrev, and Maye Musk were spotted among the spectators—most dressed in Dior—and if there was a color of the night, it was crisp, classic, black.