AFTER HOURS

New Yorkers for Children

Tuesday night, New Yorkers for Children, which focuses on helping youths in foster care, celebrated a decade of having its annual New Year’s in April: A Fool’s Fete gala on every boldfacer’s social calendar.


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Ten years is a big deal, whether it’s a marriage, a relationship—dating in NYC, not fun—or, in the case of New Yorkers for Children, a charity circuit milestone. Tuesday night, the non-profit, which focuses on helping youths in foster care, celebrated a decade of having its annual New Year’s in April: A Fool’s Fete gala on every boldfacer’s social calendar. And it even managed to recruit some new converts to its Valentino-sponsored dinner and dance at the Mandarin Oriental. Among the teeming masses crammed into a cramped cocktail hour were Jill and Harry Kargman, making their NYFC debut.

“I’m normally Cruella de Vil, but tonight I’m Cinderalla,” said Kargman of her nude tulle Valentino gown. “I feel like I should have bluebirds surrounding me.”

Yes, this is an event that tends to inspire varied interpretations of black tie: model Nicole Trunfio wore a green lace jumpsuit; Tinsley Mortimer—shockingly—attempted to maneuver the crowd in a bright pink ball gown, and Coralie Charriol Paul was in an airy red gown and flat thong sandals, after recently breaking her ankle.

“Do you want the good story or the real story?” she asked. “I was dancing in a club until four a.m. and then tripped on the cobble stone street outside. No, I actually broke it making snowmen with my kids.”

Things got hot, and not necessarily in a sexy way, as planners kept the doors to the ballroom closed unusually long, opening them for dinner just in time.

“I almost went and hid in the bathroom,” quipped one overheated woman.

Spring was abloom as long tables were decorated with cherry blossom branches and hundreds of flickering votives.

Speeches were given by this year’s guardian scholars, before Lydia Fenet slammed her mic and oversaw a raucous live auction of five different levels of donations.

“The faster you bid, the faster I get off this stage,” she ordered, cooing to one unsuspecting gentleman, “Hello, sexy. How old are you? What’s your name? Michael is obviously very rich. I hope the other ladies will take note of their husbands and be ashamed.”

Models picked at their salads and shooed away photographers attempting to photograph them while eating. The bars were three deep and the dance floor barely contained its enthusiastic participants. Ten years was looking good, though one young woman was disappointed in the meal’s offerings of organic bibb salad and arctic char.

“This is so healthy,” she pouted. “I was looking forward to steak!”

Well, longevity requires some tough choices.

Click here to see more photos.

Photo: Sherly Rabbani & Josephine Solimene