Photos: Eddie Borgo’s Dinner at the McKittrick Hotel and the New Museum Celebrates the “NYC 1993

“It’s just like the E train in the morning,” the elevator operator of Chelsea’s McKittrick Hotel quipped Wednesday night as guests piled into his lift. “Only friendlier.”

It was an apt prelude to what would be a warm supper soirée amongst friends for Eddie Borgo Jewelry’s first print ad campaign and The Last Magazine’s tenth anniversary issue. “They’ve just been such great supporters and friends over the years,” said Eddie Borgo of editors Tenzin Wild and Magnus Berger. “We really wanted to celebrate the relationship.”

Even those weary from a long New York Fashion Week came out to fete Borgo’s achievement. In a quiet booth, Elin Kling and Alexander Skarsgård held Swedish court, while old pals and designers Phillip Lim and Richard Chai caught up over black kale salad and cocktails. “I’m surprised the place hasn’t been used this week before now!” Hannah Bronfman commented of the yet-unnamed, yet unopened restaurant before turning to talk to Vogue’s Elisabeth von Thurn und Taxis. After dinner the band Mone took the stage for an intimate performance, and veteran model Julia Stegner observed, “I always love these parties. It’s a fashion party, but it’s also not a fashion party—it’s just friends.”

Across town, partygoers were taken back in time. The Bowery was a very different place in 1993: CBGB was still extant, DBGB was nonexistent, and the Bowery Mission was the most beloved food purveyor—not Whole Foods. Two archetypes of the new Bowery—the New Museum and the Bowery Hotel—paid homage to this lost world (20 years ago to be exact) with a dinner to celebrate the museum’s newest exhibition: “NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star.” Named after Sonic Youth’s album released that year, the exhibit aims to memorialize and celebrate a moment that was a turning point in recent history; culturally, politically, and economically.

“The market just dissolved then and the art market collapsed, and that opened up so many possibilities for artists, it made it a level playing field,” explained Lisa Phillips, director of the New Museum and cohost of the evening, along with Valentino and Vogue. Guests including Jeffrey Deitch, Elizabeth Peyton, Gavin Brown, Hope Atherton, Zani Gugelmann, and Alina Cho mingled before digging into their bistecca or branzino. Massimiliano Gioni described the show as “an exercise in collective memory” even though he himself was nineteen years old living in Busto Arsizio, Italy, the self-described Newark of Italy. “Every month, I would get Flash Art, Artforum, and Art in America, and it was a complete and total revelation.”