Diane von Furstenberg and André Balazs Are On The Open Market

by Eddie Roche

DIANE VON FURSTENBERG, ANDREW ROSEN, and ANDRÉ BALAZS Host MPIA'S Open Market Fundraiser

On Monday night, three of the Meatpacking district’s main champions, Diane von Furstenberg, André Balazs, and Andrew Rosen, co-chaired the neighborhood’s district improvement fundraiser, Open Market, at Highline Stages. The second annual event transformed the venue into an interactive dining experience, with most of the neighborhood restaurants and retail stores participating. Booths from places like The Standard Grill, Soho House, and Morimoto provided the bites while sample sale items from Theory, rag & bone, and Helmut Lang kept shoppers busy. One thing everybody in the room had in common was a love for the ‘hood. Balazs is particularly proud of seeing how the Highline has transformed the area. “It’s changed New York,” he told The Daily. “There’s not a question about it. When we started it was a pie-in-the-sky dream. When we bought the property at The Standard, everybody wanted to tear down the Highline. It was seen as a blight that was compromising everything in the West Side of Manhattan. It’s revived and given a soul to the whole west side. This last leg is very exciting.” DvF is also crazy about life on West 14th Street. “I love the river, I love the Highline, I love the [upcoming] Whitney Museum,” she told us. “You have to be careful because real estate people come and do all kinds of things.” Just how does DvF manage walking on those bumpy streets? “I was born in Belgium. The cobble stones are one of the reasons I came here!” Spoken like a true local.

 

 

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