Prabal Gurung and Sophie Auster Host the Premiere of Engram

It wasn’t a typical birthday party for Prabal Gurung. Well-wishers surrounded him at the Museum of Modern Art’s Celeste Bartos Theater last night, where friend and collaborator Maggie Betts premiered her new short film, Engram, presented by Tiffany Co. “Very serious, very serious,” Gurung said, teasing Elettra Wiedemann on the step and repeat. “You should talk!” she retorted, poking fun at his own duck face. The designer was the star of the evening for another reason, too: He created the scene-stealing floaty white dress that Isabel Lucas wears in the film. “It’s so romantic and poetic,” said Lucas of the gown. “I know that his style is usually more urban and architectural, and the willowy shape was softer than his usual designs. I loved it.” Lucas wore a ruffled, blue minidress from Gurung’s pre-fall collection for yesterday’s occasion, and other fashion plates turned out wearing looks by the designer as well (Wiedemann in a jeweled top, Indre Rockefeller in a navy sundress, and Sophie Auster in a mint-green column dress, for example). Following the screening, attendees piled into cabs and cars and sped downtown to Margaux at the Marlton Hotel, where Barbara Bush, Lauren Remington Platt, and Rebecca Dayan surveyed plates of meatballs, kale salad, and hummus. The warm atmosphere brought back the moving words Betts shared before debuting her film: “I knew I would be working with great people, but I didn t know that I would be making friends for life.”