The Hottest Club On Tuesday Night Was The Whitney Museum

Welcome to NYLON’s Party Report Card, where we give you the Who, What, Where, Why, and When on this week’s hottest parties — plus all the gossip you missed. It’s the inside scoop you need to feel like you were on the invite list. Sorry in advance for the FOMO.

WHAT: The Whitney Museum Art Party, sponsored by Cynthia Rowley and Aesop

WHEN: Wednesday, Jan. 30

WHO: Cynthia Rowley, Natalie Lim Suarez, Griffin Maxwell Brooks, Olivia Palermo, Alice Gao, New York Nico, and more.

WHERE: Whitney Museum of American Art, 99 Gansevoort St., New York, New York

WHY: A fundraiser for the museum Independent Study Program

THE VIBE:

Ten minutes past 9:30 p.m., the 2024 Whitney Art Party was at capacity. The museum had transformed itself into the hottest club in Meatpacking on Jan. 30 for a night of art, dancing, and, crucially, people watching.

Upon entering, guests were greeted with hot towels lightly scented with Aesop perfume, and the initial confusion led to eventual delight. I didn’t exactly expect a spa experience, but who can be mad at a moment with a hot towel? But soon, people were clamoring for glasses of sparkling wine, Casa Dragones Blanco tequila, or the night’s signature drink: the Noon NightCap, named after the visual artist Kambui Olujimi. As is usually the case with a museum party, the crowd was a mix of tuxedoed wealthy donors and stylish elder-millennial art and fashion people. Naturally, there’s no band that is the physical manifestation of that demographic more than MGMT, who performed a DJ set of propulsive dance music fit for a club like Good Room — which meant there was a small but committed group of dancers hugging the decks.

The best part of partying at The Whitney is that partygoers can roam the galleries, and I got a sneak peek of the museum’s newest exhibition, Harold Cohen: AARON, which traces some of the first AI art created in the ’60s. When the elevator opened on the ground floor, it revealed yet another bartender dutifully pouring tequila over a Casa Dragones-branded ice sculpture into coupes for guests to down just before exiting. It’s this kind of Instagram-worthy ornamentation that makes a girl just happy to be here.

Upstairs in the permanent collections, I watched guests take glamour shots in front of Juanita McNeely’s 1969 work Is It Real? Yes It Is, a series of nightmarish expressionist paintings that depicts the artist’s illegal abortion in haunting, captivating detail. On the floor below, Aesop set up shop with a series of desktop-computer-size nose sculptures paired with archival scents to create an olfactory oasis, the scent of which will last long after the Casa Dragones has run out, thanks to the gift bag that included a bottle of the brand’s woody Ouranon.

BEST DRESSED: Caroline Vazzana in a bubblegum pink Hutch Designs dress, Betsey Johnson polka-dot heels and a Fendi bag, with a long pink bow she added herself.

OVERHEARD: “I think that’s Anna Weyant in front of us,” to which someone’s date responded “Anna Weyant wouldn’t wait in line.”