On Wednesday night, the Society of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center hosted its annual Fall Party in partnership with Valentino. Held at the Metropolitan Club, the occasion provided a welcome reprieve in the aftermath of the presidential election, which, for many, seemed to have cast a literal and figurative cloud in its wake. “The weather is bad, the future is hazy, but we’re still here because this is something that we can do that’s positive for New York,” said cochair Amory McAndrew, “and that’s to support cancer research.” The event raised funds for the Associates Committee’s newest initiative, Clinical Genomic Profiling, and its research into determining how certain gene mutations lead to the development of cancers in children. A sense of hope could be felt when Dr. Neal Shukla delivered a moving speech about a 14-year-old girl from Bangladesh who was diagnosed with rare pediatric breast cancer at age 8; in September she traveled the 7,000-some miles from her small farm village in South Asia to New York to receive treatment at Sloan Kettering, which has yielded miraculous results. “After going through five surgeries, 11 different chemotherapies, and being sick as heck for six years,” Shukla said, “the tumor is now completely gone.”
Inspirational women proved to be a key theme, as evidenced by McAndrew and fellow cochairs Mollie Ruprecht Acquavella and Anna Burke Patterson. “They are really the embodiment of what it means to give,” said society president Lavinia Branca Snyder. “They give up their time, they give it elegantly, and they look beautiful.” For her part, McAndrew wore a bold volcano-print maxi design from the Valentino Pre-Fall 2016 collection. “I wanted something that was fun and formal,” she said. “It’s a nice, strong dress—and I feel like a strong woman.” This sentiment was echoed by Acquavella, who at eight and a half months pregnant, championed the label’s powerful femininity, which came courtesy of a caped goddess gown in ruby red with a necklace cut-out detail at the collar. And while both women had the storied Italian house in mind, the chosen looks were unique. “This group of ladies picks their own dresses,” Snyder said. “They’re very self-determined.” Whether spoken or sartorial, the overall message was a meaningful (and chic) cause for celebration.
