PAUL,STELLA,YOKO ONO, DHANI HARRISON TOGETHER:LINCOLN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS GALA HONORS STELLA

Parties for fashion people aren’t always snobby and intense. Take, as evidence, Thursday’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ Corporate Fund gala, which honored the designer Stella McCartney with its women’s leadership award.

The centerpiece of the evening was an informal conversation between Ms. McCartney, daughter of Paul McCartney, and Jerry Seinfeld. But as soon as you entered Alice Tully Hall, you knew—even without Drew Barrymore, Helena Christensen, Natalia Vodianova and Liv Tyler already inside—this was going to be a dress of a different stripe, one that wasn’t all clingy and uncomfortable. 

That’s because ladies carrying cigarette trays offered you all sorts of little tchotchkes: whistles, key chains, noisemakers, light-up Stella pins and mini “Little Miss Stella” books. It was kind of adorable.

The proceedings started with a Stella McCartney lovefest. Recorded greetings came from Bono , Reese Witherspoon, Kate Winslet, fellow animal activist Doris Day and the comedian Amy Poehler. 

Stella with Liv Tyler and Woody Harrelson

“You manage to be a real person in a sea of lunatics,” Ms. Poehler said of Ms. McCartney.

“I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t like Stella,” said Glenda Bailey, the editor of Harper’s Bazaar, who co-chaired the event.

Chelsea Handler was the night’s MC, though she had to run off to Dubai after Mr. Seinfeld and Ms. McCartney’s conversation.

“I’d say break a leg,” said Ms. Handler, who was in particularly fine form, “but I don’t want to insult Heather Mills. ”

Mr. Seinfeld asked Ms. McCartney several rather direct questions. They included: “Have you seen my new show and what do you like about it?” “What is the difference between what anybody wears, anyway?” and “Why do people look disgusting, and why are they getting more and more disgusting as the years go by? What is going on?”

Asked early on, about how she should approach her responses, Ms. McCartney said: “Am I supposed to be funny? Or should I answer seriously?”

Eventually, Mr. McCartney hopped on stage to present his daughter with her award and George Harrison ’s son, Dhani, performed “Live and Let Die” with a band and 19-piece horn section. Then it was time for a vegetarian dinner of vegetable tarts, risotto served in individual acorn squashes and a chocolate pots de creme.

The discussion among the attendees, who included Woody Harrelson, Yoko Ono, Lorne Michaels , and Justine and Jeff Koons, was that the evening had been a big hit, mostly because it felt fresh and off-the-cuff.

“Can you take it on tour?” Ms. McCartney’s husband, Alasdhair Willis, asked Mr. Seinfeld, when he had taken his seat next to his wife, Jessica.

Mr. Seinfeld said that when he was first asked to participate, the folks at Lincoln Center and Hearst, which helped underwrite the evening, told him “You don’t need to know a single thing about fashion to do this job.”

“And apparently, they were right,” replied Ms. Seinfeld.

 



“He’s a pretty sharp cookie,” Ms. McCartney said of Mr. Seinfeld. They had meant to get together over the summer to talk about the evening but that never happened.

“So I called him last night and said, ‘Maybe we should talk about this,’ ” Ms. McCartney said. “Then I said, ‘Should we just busk this? Let’s just busk it.’ So we busked it.”

For most of the noncelebrity guests, the appeal of the evening was the proximity to Mr. McCartney.

Even the artists Marilyn Minter and Cindy Sherman got in on the selfie action.

“You’re going to change our lives,” Ms. Minter told Mr. McCartney after Ms. Sherman went up to the musician to introduce herself.

They posed, flanking the former Beatle.

“Send it straight to Photoshop,” joked Mr. McCartney.