Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Capote's Black and White Ball

Truman Capote was a strange man: eccentric, selfish, talented and obsessed with high society. In 1966 he decided to throw an amazing and (ahem) bitchy party for a little over 500 guests—those he deemed the most important at the time. Apparently he had enough clout to be taken seriously with this shenanigans and people went bananas trying to get invited. Among those he did invite were Frank Sinatra, Candace Bergen, Mia Farrow, Andy Warhol, Sammy Davis Jr and Harper Lee. The following are pictures of the night (set in NYC at the Plaza on Park Avenue). The ladies were instructed to wear black or white dresses with white masks and gentlemen in black tie with black masks. Amazing.
Capote's Black and White Ball
Capote's Black and White Ball
I got most of my information from a great article on the hub pages website. Read it. And I got some of the images from Fashions Most Wanted blog. (PS. One of my favorite things I read was that while so many of the guests purchased couture masks that cost a fortune, Capote's black mask was purchased from FAO Schwarz for 39 cents.)

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