It started with roses at The Mark and ended with Bombay Sapphire martinis on cocktail napkins at Zero Bond. In between: Jenna Ortega holding court under crimson candlelight, Sabrina Carpenter puffing a post-gala cigar in head-to-toe Vuitton, and Simone Biles dancing in diamonds over Cane’s fried chicken. This was the first Monday in May as it truly unfolds—after the stairs, before the hangover.
“You’d be going up in the elevator with a pop star, a president, or an Academy Award actor—there was just always someone or something interesting going on there,” Nicky Hilton tells Observer of her childhood memories living at the Waldorf Astoria.