Inside Mario Buatta's Final High Society Farewell
The nickname “Prince of Chintz,” the redecoration of heaven and a pet plastic cockroach named Harold were all mentioned in every tribute offered at the gathering to celebrate the life of design legend Mario Buatta, who died in October at the age of 83. It was a haute décor and high society gathering if there ever was one. Timed with New York’s Winter Antiques Show, which Buatta had chaired for many years, 300 invited guests braved a wickedly cold night to laugh, cry, and reminisce about their favorite decorator and prankster.
Famous for his exquisitely sumptuous takes on the English Country House look-and infamous for his hoarding and sometimes painful repertoire of shtick (the above mentioned cockroach, assorted fright wigs, fake foreign accents, and a ubiquitous Tiffany gift box full of broken glass that would “accidentally” be dropped upon presentation-even I got that as a 50th birthday present,) it was standing room only in the paneled rooms off the south gallery of the Park Avenue Armory.
The crowd was a heady mix of colleagues, clients and friends who ran the gamut from fresh-faced décor up and comers to the last vestiges of the Swifty’s set. Among them, interior design luminaries such as Richard Keith Langham, Alex Papachristidis, Jeffrey Bilhuber, Ellie Cullman, Alexa Hampton (with her mother Duane) and Joanne de Guardiola, were social fixtures such as Susan Guttfreund, Jean Shafiroff, Amy Fine Collins, Jamee and Peter Gregory, Jared Goss, and Mark Gilbertson.
After a vintage video of British designer Jane Churchill visiting Buatta in his apartment (from the days when he still allowed people inside), a roster of bold-faced names took the podium to share their own personal Mario moments. Longtime clients Hilary and Wilbur Ross spoke warmly and lovingly about their personal and professional relationship, fellow designer Anne Eisenhower fought back tears, ceramist Chris Spitzmiller lightened the mood with “Mario once told me that my pants were like a cheap hotel… no ballroom.”
Christopher Forbes recalled hijinks on the Highlander, the famous Forbes yacht, and David Patrick Columbia offered poignant insights into Buatta’s multi-layered personality. But it was 90-year-old cabaret legend Marilyn Maye who provided the perfect coda to the love-fest. Accompanied by pianist Jeff Harris, her still-spectacular voice bathed the room with James Taylor’s “Secret ‘O Life.”
Like the life of Mario Buatta, it was a lovely ride.
('You Might Also Like',)
