Inside The New York Botanical Garden’s Orchid Dinner

Each year, The New York Botanical Garden travels from its flower-filled home in the Bronx to the Plaza Hotel for a soiree celebrating a specific type of bloom: The Orchid. The benefit dinner coincides with the start of the NYBG s annual show dedicated to orchids, and this year, the garden called upon a trio of fashion designers to help organize the show. Collina Strada by Hillary Taymour, Dauphinette by Olivia Cheng, and FLWR PSTL a.k.a. Kristen Alpaugh were all tapped for The Orchid Show: Florals in Fashion, on now at the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.

This year, as all years, the event took place in the Plaza s ballroom, where the table decor is the centerpiece of the night. But the tablescapes are not your average napkin ring and goblet settings; towering and cascading arrangements of orchids and more punctuated the room. Winding through the space felt as though guests were taking a turn about a sculpture garden. One table of all-white orchids on a stone-like pedestal was particularly arresting.

After an orchid auction of blooms gently plucked from the storied botanical garden, a dinner began with Dascha Polanco, Charlotte Groenveld, Melodie Ray, Jenny Cipoletti, Michelle Ochs, Christie Tyler, Christina Grasso, Madisin Rian, PJ Mattan, and more on the guest list.

The night, which was supported by Guerlain (its Orchidée Impériale is one of the many reasons the French beauty maison is the perfect partner), celebrated the start of The Orchid Show: Florals in Fashion.