Bronson van Wyck Hosts the Bal des Sauvages

For Bronson van Wyck’s 40th birthday party, an epic and decadent Bal des Sauvages, guests arrived in fine feather literally.There wasn’t a bird left standing on the East Coast since most of the feathers were on the heads of the women in attendance. One, Dini von Mueffling, wore a two-foot-tall plumed Mohawk. When asked how she managed to get in the car, she replied, “I laid down.” A woman sprouting enormous raven’s wings on her head chatted politely with a man dressed as a werewolf. The host and birthday boy himself wore a peacock cape handmade himself to the knee, which likely made significant a dent in the peacock population worldwide.

Bronson’s Ball caused a run on masks in the New York Metro area which were, in turn, elaborate and fantastical, winged and earthbound people went whole hog, as it were. The masks conferred a simultaneous sense of freedom and self-consciousness as the whole point of the party was people watching unrecognizable people. Eating was problematic in the masks, but that didn’t prevent guests from enjoying the soigné snack of scrambled eggs with Beluga caviar, which lingered on people’s whiskers.

Costumes also affected people’s depth perception. A round man with a bushy acrylic wolf’s tail almost lit himself on fire passing tea lights on a thigh-height console (there were eleven fire marshalls present in case of flammable appendages). Someone wearing black wings with the wingspan of a Boeing had to exit a doorway horizontally. A few men stood sheepishly sans costume, but most were game (sorry) to dress for the event with discreet antlers or tiny horns affixed to their heads. Even the subtlest disguises featured animalistic tendencies Martha Stewart’s fox stole, Tamara Mellon’s slinky Catwoman, Dylan Lauren’s Maleficent-like ram’s horns.

For the Wizard of Oz of New York party planning, even this exceeded expectations. And trust me, after receiving the save-the-date (on cardstock thicker than a Katz’s sandwich), the invitation, and the link to the elaborate website (which outlined the history of Bal des Sauvages and offered extensive costume suggestions), expectations were high. Van Wyck and his team transformed an underground concrete bunker on West 27th Street into a rich warren of lushly furnished rooms decorated to a T. Around 11 p.m., van Wyck performed a Madonna-inspired dance routine in a Lacroix couture–inspired ensemble. Flo Rida’s following extended performance got all of van Wyck’s Upper East Side clients gyrating with glee. This ball of the beasts was wild.