Despite Emily Post’s rule that black tie attire was only to be worn after 7 p.m., the Dallas Museum of Art tossed that idea to the wind on Tuesday, May 10. After all, it’s not every day that the Cartier and Islamic Art exhibition had a VIP reception starting at 6 p.m. However, Mother Nature must have gone by Post’s claim as the setting sun was still a bit blinding via the Hamon Atrium’s wall of glass.
Don Freeman, upon arriving with his sunglasses, almost returned to the valets to get his clear cheaters. But he probably was just as happy upon entering the Atrium via the John Eagle Plaza manned by Cartier doormen at the entrance.
In addition to the brilliance of the sun was the look of the crowd that blended Cartier echelon like Cartier North America CEO Mercedes Abramo, Cartier Collection Curator Pascale Lepeu, Cartier South East, Cartier North America Marketing VP Isabelle Verzeroli and Texas AVP Alexandre Delamort with North Texas art lovers like Catherine and Will Rose, Kit Sawers with her brother Kevin Richardson, Laura and Walter Elcock, Capera Ryan, Erin Mathews with Russ Davis, Joan and Paul Ridley, and Lisa Cooley with daughter/newlywed Ciara Cooley Biggers.
The look of the crowd was both black-tie and creative, including CeCe Smith’s whimsical jacket and Ford Lacy’s colorful cummerbund, Deedie Rose‘s headdress, Mary Noel Lamont‘s honey-gold satin tuxedo jacket with tiny sparkling daisies and DMA Director Agustín Arteaga’s and Carlos Jaime-Hernandez’s silk Nehru jackets that they had picked up in India.
A little past the planned start, Agustín addressed the crowd, recalling, “Over 20 years ago, in my time as director at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, I had the privilege to curate one of the first exhibitions of Cartier’s great works, It was a huge success and such a fantastic experience that eight years ago I went back to Cartier to propose working together again.
“Soon after I arrived at the DMA, we re-started the conversations and our Cartier friends’ first visit to Dallas happened in October 2017; the following spring, Sara Schleuning, Pierre Rainero, Renee Frank and I sat at a café in front of La Comédie Francaise to celebrate that we have agreed on working together to do this captivating exhibition.”
The result was the DMA is the “sole North American venue for this exhibition.”
As the VIP reception guests headed to the Chilton I and II galleries to check out the exhibition of 400 objects presented by PNC Bank, the uber VIP types dined in the tent just past 7, making their black-tie attire Post perfect. In the days ahead, there would be more private festivities for Cartier executives and local VIPs to enjoy the exhibition that will be on display through Sunday, September 18. To visit the array of objets d’art, make a reservation here.