Diane von Furstenberg, wearing a dark blue chiffon caftan, sat slinkily on a couch at a party surrounded by her friends and admirers on Tuesday night at the Perelman Performing Arts Center in Lower Manhattan. They were lining up to affectionately pay their respects to the fashion designer, and the congregants included Michael Douglas, Tiffany Haddish, Karlie Kloss, Seth Meyers and the former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
“It’s always a little embarrassing being celebrated,” Ms. von Furstenberg said, waving away an hors d’oeuvres tray of shrimp cocktail bites. “Mayor Bloomberg called me and he said, ‘You’re the only icon I know, so you have to say yes.’”
“And I said, ‘Listen, if you really want me to do this, I want you to make fun of me,’” she continued. “So I’m hoping tonight will turn into a roast.”
Ms. von Furstenberg, 78, was being honored by the art center’s Icons of Culture Gala, which jubilantly fetes the city’s movers and shakers. Mr. Bloomberg, who is the venue’s chair, was pivotal in funding the art center’s opening two years ago with a $130 million donation, adding to the $75 million contribution first stacked by Ronald O. Perelman.
The events hall, which overlooks the World Trade Center memorial site, soon filled with fashion, media and business crowds. Guests were served drinks on cocktail napkins with illustrations of Ms. von Furstenberg’s red lips.
“Her wrap dress really changed the game,” Ms. Haddish said. “But so did her own personal style and grace. The way she moves, lots of other women now move.”
“Diane’s been manifesting since long before anyone used that word,” mused Mark Guiducci, Vanity Fair’s newly minted global editorial director.
Mr. Douglas reminisced about the dance floor days. “Our paths would cross at Studio 54,” he said. “I can’t remember if I danced with her, though. But if you were there, you don’t remember.”
Soon, guests gathered in the theater for the grand tribute spectacle. Ms. von Furstenberg sat with her husband, Barry Diller. The program did not quite end up being a skewering roast, but it did serve as something of an infomercial for the Perelman Performing Arts Center, still a relative newcomer to the city’s cultural scene.
Mr. Bloomberg lobbed some zingers in his opening remarks.
“In case you’re wondering: No, I have never worn one of her famous wrap dresses,” he said. “And if I had, I wouldn’t tell you.”
Then a film played onscreen, featuring narration from Mr. Bloomberg, detailing how the venue’s development began as part of an initiative to revitalize Lower Manhattan after the Sept. 11 attacks, along with the 9/11 Memorial & Museum and One World Trade Center.
The show included musical performances from Esperanza Spalding and Norah Jones. Mr. Meyers introduced the main spectacle, a theatrical ensemble performance that chronicled the novelistic arc of Ms. von Furstenberg’s life, beginning with her birth in Brussels nearly 80 years ago as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor.
Ms. Kloss introduced “The Early Years.” The actor Tituss Burgess, dressed in a wrap dress, re-enacted through song Ms. von Furstenberg’s New York adventures in the 1970s. To evoke the Studio 54 days, a troupe dancers (all clad in DVF wrap dresses) shimmied to Blondie’s “Rapture.” And Andy Cohen narrated a segment called “The Tycoon.”
“Diane looked at a burrito and said, ‘I’d wear that,’” he said. “Before you know it, she is the woman in charge.” He added: “She didn’t just create a dress. She built a world around it.”
Ms. von Furstenberg eventually took the stage with Mr. Bloomberg to bask in some applause — but not before the former mayor hit the crowd with one more zinger.
“Most people say that Lady Liberty is wearing a robe,” he said. “But I’ll have you know that what she’s really wearing is a wrap dress.”
Alex Vadukul is a features writer for the Styles section of The Times, specializing in stories about New York City.
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