A senator’s wife complimented the cut with enough enthusiasm to suggest she had heard the story and approved of my counter-programming. A tech founder too young to know better asked if the dress was “symbolic,” and I told him only of my unwillingness to let any color be monopolized by people who inherited table assignments. An editor from Vanity Fair asked whether I had changed my view of New York society after recent events. I said, “No. Society remains what it has always been: a room full of people trying to decide whether they believe value can be learned or only inherited.”
That quote appeared online the next morning and circulated more widely than I intended.
Near midnight, while an orchestra turned Cole Porter into background noise for men discussing private aviation, I stepped out onto a terrace to breathe cold air and briefly be alone.
“I thought that might be you.”
The voice belonged to Eleanor Price, founder of a large retail empire and one of the very few women older than me in my field who had never treated mentorship like brand management. She joined me at the stone balustrade in emerald silk and diamonds the size of moral compromise.
“You clean up well,” she said.