At a Legendary Manhattan Townhouse, a Party With Great Art and Great Shoes

New York Times

30-05-2025

In early May, fashion and art types from all over prepared to descend on New York. First, there was the Met Gala, then the opening of Frieze New York and the European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF), plus a handful of smaller satellite fairs like the one put on by the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA). Figuring that many of her friends would be in town at once, Lily Atherton Hanbury, 45, who splits her time between London and Oxfordshire, England, and is the creative director and a co-founder of Le Monde Béryl — a shoe brand known for its elegant velvet slippers and Mary Janes — decided she'd come too, and that she'd throw a party. The order of events would be drinks, then dinner, then dancing, and the venue would be the Harlem home of her sister, the artist Hope Atherton, 50, and brother-in-law, the art dealer and gallerist Gavin Brown, 60. Together with their 11-year-old daughter, Feroline, the couple live in a 19th-century brick townhouse that, with its open kitchen-and-dining area, verdant balcony and appealing array of art and design pieces, calls out for a crowd.
'We've got the system down,' said Brown, sitting on a bulbous C-shaped foam and suede couch he purchased at an auction of items from the estate of the R&B singer Luther Vandross. Indeed, Brown and Atherton have had plenty of practice, what with the countless parties for artists they've hosted there, including a teeming celebration for Joan Jonas following her opening at MoMA last March. Atherton Hanbury was expecting a similarly large crowd of over 100 guests, so out came the extra glassware, silverware and serving platters once again. 'I've been really surprised by how calm they are, having so many people invade their house,' said Atherton Hanbury. 'It gets packed, but it's still fun,' Brown said with a shrug. Feroline didn't mind, either, and was excited for an occasion to wear her 'vintage' Le Monde Béryl lace-up block heels, a style dating from soon after the label's 2016 launch and a cherished gift from her aunt.
The attendees: The guests, said Atherton Hanbury, consisted of 'a community of old friends and new friends — people traveling from faraway places, but also local New Yorkers.' The stylist Kate Young arrived first, in black mesh Le Monde Béryl heeled mules. She hadn't dressed any clients for the Met Gala this year and had spent the first Monday in May happily relaxing at her house upstate. The stylist and creative consultant Becky Akinyode, however, was impressively still out and about after attending four different Met Gala after-parties. Also in attendance were the designer and producer Alexandre de Betak, the photographer and filmmaker Joshua Woods and the artist Tunji Adeniyi-Jones. They compared schedules with art world figures, including the Frieze London director Eva Langret, the art adviser Sarah Levine and curators, directors and gallerists like Alexandra Cunningham-Cameron (Cooper Hewitt), Legacy Russell (the Kitchen), Gladys and Ollivier Chenel (Galerie Chenel), Monica Fernandez-Taranco (Modern Art), Sarah Rustin (Thaddaeus Ropac) and Emma Scully (Emma Scully Gallery).
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