By Laura Medina
When Gilles
Amsallem transported the quintessential modern french phenomena, "Dine en Blanc" where a large group of people set up an elegant dinner/picnic party, all dressed in white, to Lincoln Center exactly a year ago, he wondered why not bring this French concept of a White Party to Los Angeles...but where in the City of Angels and more importantly, how?
The same time Gilles was pondering how to carry Dine en Blanc to the other side, the other capital of the United States, a couple was reading about Gilles' Dine en Blanc endeavor and fait accompli in the New York Times (this scribe also read about this in the New York Times).
This Los Angeles couple, the Kalaras, were wondering when will Los Angeles get a proper "White Party?" There have been other "white parties" but none seems to fit their preferences, the audience was too young or the party was promoting a product. They want a party to encompasses various people across the city and groups who appreciates and yearns for something well-mannered and elegant.
“In
this age of over stimulation, it is nice to have an event that is a throwback
to the old times of pure white ambiance, elegant dressing and old fashioned
picnic. I’ll travel to the end of the world for a good picnic. I believe if
Great Gatsby was hosting parties today, he would host Dîner en Blanc.”
So, they took it upon themselves and connected with Gilles and other Dine en Blanc organizers. The Kalaras were astonished that Gilles and his colleagues were thinking the same thing...Dine en Blanc in LA!
Sunny
Kalara's wife, with her husband's help, picked up the mantle and acted as the "middle-person" going back-and-forth between Dine en Blanc's needs and wants and the City of Beverly Hills' requirements and requests. She said it was a two-months endeavor of translating, negotiating, and trying very hard to keep everything under wraps were tough but well worth it.
As soon as whiff of a Dine en Blanc "White Party Picnic" was sniffed, the tickets sold out in two hours.
As this scribe's fellow "Dine en Blanc" Westsiders were loading up one of the four "party" tour buses and en route, the poor leader was nagged with "Where we're going?"
It dawned upon this scribe's fellow bus riders that the top secret was Rodeo Drive!
According to a Beverly Hills council member, he and his colleagues like the idea of a Dine en Blanc White Party/Picnic. Shoot, why not make it the main attraction for Beverly Hills and put on the best street, Rodeo Drive?!
Beverly Hills graciously and efficiently helped Dine en Blanc with the insurance, the city permits, street permits to secure the prime spot, forming a cross that was equidistantly one-block long in all 4 directions. The north-to-south leg of the picnic party was Rodeo Drive/Wilshire Boulevard intersection to the south then Rodeo Drive/Little Santa Monica Boulevard to the north. The east-to-west arm was Dayton Way/Camden to the west and Dayton Way/Beverly Drive to the east.
The world-famous cobbled-stone Via Rodeo stood as a glamorous background.
When it dawn upon the diners that they were the main attraction and were picnicking and dining on the heart of Rodeo Drive, this scribe's fellow attendees realized of what was requested and asked upon by Dine en Blanc organizers.
These are the rules: if you can bring your own table, chairs, and decorations, please do. If you can't haul tables and chairs, a table cloth can double as a picnic blanket. Leave a place as when you arrive at it, please bring garbage bags so not to leave the place messy.
Los Angeles' Dine en Blanc denizens did as they were told...and exceed expectations. Dine en Blanc Los Angelenos were an army in white. These ladies in white evening gowns and heels and their gents in white tux hauled every conceivable fold-up tables and chairs known to mankind. At 7pm sharp, under the direction of the bus and neighborhood team leaders, the diners magically pulled out gold and silver-gilted candelabras and crystal chandlers, vases holding bouquets of white roses, and tabletop chandeliers, full-on silverware with proper china and champagne flutes.
These kind folks were the genteel and chic version of an U.S. Navy Construction Battalion, a.k.a. as "seabee," making something awe-inspiring from nothing. Under the direction of neighborhood team leaders, they organized rows of tables, elegantly draped in white table cloths and neatly lined up and down Rodeo Drive, from Wilshire Boulevard to Little Santa Monica Boulevard. These people engineered a four block outdoor gourmand restaurant in 3o minutes and less on the world's most famous shopping street. Not one person sat on the ground munching on a picnic blanket. A pop-up gourmand dining feast is no mere feat, friends.
"All-in-White" isn't restricted to the dress code but to food too. Alfredo sauce and pasta and sushi and a river of white wine and champagne flowing doesn't stain the white outfits, very considerate. While people dine, a real-life French chanteuse sing with a real live band.
Paraphrasing Harry Potter's Professor Minerva McGonagall, Dine en Blanc was a fete of well-mannered frivolities.
Just because it's civilized, it doesn't mean it's stiff and dead.
Once the prim and proper singing stopped, folks got their groove and burnt calories bopping to a real-life saxophonist blasting hip-hop beats among the crowd.
According to the French Dine en Blanc organizers, they want to bring to L.A., a touch and taste of South of France where white parties are a part of life there.
People too tired and too weak to carry and self-construct an impromptu bistro, from their backs, can pre-order a prepared meal and white wine from Monsieur Marcel, a French wine and gourmet market around the corner. Monsieur Marcel politely set up a food and wine station at the party so attendees can easily grab and dine on their pop-up table.
Of course, everyone was keen on the fashion. alll dazzling and blindingly white hot.
There was a plethora of white, floating chiffon, silky satin, and comfortable cotton but here are the three stand-outs, and standing out is good.
Yes, yes...there was a float of fascinators and British-sque large hats but remember Los Angeles was founded by the Spanish. Owning up to it's heritage, this elegant lady in white (left photo) was an aristocratic infanta wearing a white mantilla veil hoisted by a peineta, a traditional large hair comb holding mantillas worn by Spain's upper-crust ladies.
The bejeweled masked lady represents the glamorous, free-wheeling Mardi Gras.
Very rarely, people inquire about guys dandy-ing up but this gentleman did in a white tux with matching proper vest and bow tie.
Ok, since everyone was carefully of their one-and-only all white outfits, it was all good, clean fun. The guy with the portable bubble machine pump (right) made sure about that. There was even a California guy grooving with a white rose in his mouth (middle). The musicians, singer, the saxophonist, and the DJ turned Rodeo Drive into the chicest dance floor, more like an outdoor discotheque, too stylish to be adolescent rave.
Mind you, organizing and running one of the world's most glamorous outdoor party...in white...on the world's most elegant street was no easy feat. If it weren't for the Kalara's elan focus and drive, Gilles' imagination, Dine en Blanc's LA neighborhood and bus team leaders acting as impromptu captains, lieutenants, and sergeants efficiently directly attendees from all over Los Angeles, it would had been a complete mess with nobody happy.
Thanks to their diligence, Dine en Blanc's Los Angeleno members disproved the greater world wrong. We are not "bash mobbers;" and we are too chic and cosmopolitan to be flash mobbers, we are Dine en Blanc, worldly and wise in knowing how to throw a glam slam of an feast in a blink anywhere.
It took a long time but Dine en Blanc arrived at the right time in the right place with the right help from the right people.
The Hamptons better watch their backs come Labor Day.
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