I was thrilled to be able to attend the First Annual Interactive Influencers Brunch at the Topping Rose House this past Saturday, July 21st. There were a great mix of bloggers, cable TV personalities, YouTubers, luxury and natural lifestyle brand owners and fun people who simply like to party in the Hamptons.
The first step to any great Hamptons party is walking onto the “step and repeat”—I am too shy for this plus I am not a “somebody” so I tend to avoid them myself. But that does not mean that I don’t love to check them out and admire the unique designs and sponsors’ logos on each one. Pictured above is Vanessa Gordon (in the cream lace dress) who runs East End Taste—the firm who produced this event—along with two gal-pals.
My favorite edible at the brunch was the adorable Unbaked Red Velvet Cake created with beets by Love Love Edibles, who was one of the 15 exhibitors at the event. This company imports dozens of healthy snack items including several types of nuts that I have never heard of before. They also created small sweet finger snacks out of dates and nuts. All of their products are 100 per cent natural.
One of the most popular alcoholic drinks was Lolea’s sparkling sangria in a can. There are both red and white versions and guests were knocked out by its fruity taste. It is the perfect light and fresh alcoholic drink for a sunny summer afternoon brunch. There were also fabulous black tea drinks flavored with real grapefruit chunks at the Bar Pa Tea table and organic birch and fruit drinks courtesy of Treo. I first met the Bar Pa Tea team last September during New York Fashion Week and was blown away by their bubble teas and how they offer both sweetened and sugar-free varieties–not to mention some of the most creative flavors in the bubble tea business!
Chameleon’s spectacular cold coffee pods created the wonderful cold brew being poured—but they also had their canned beverages on hand. Guests were handed pods to take home ans try for themselves; all you have to do is drop one in 32 ounces of water and put the pitcher in your fridge for eight hours. I just made one of my pods and I have to say it tastes as good as the coffee served at the brunch on Saturday.
Wonderful accessories and jewelry were on sale at several tables; I personally went just when I saw the India Hicks table because I love this brand’s sophisticated yet easy wear fare. A blue fringed clutch bag was raffled off on Saturday but everyone who shopped at this table turned out to be a winner because there were heavy discounts and more than 100 items to choose from.
T3’s wonderful curling irons and blowdryers were on hand and party guests got the wonderful Convertible Base Interchangeable Power Base and the Polished Curls 1.25” Clip Barrel. Three stylists were on hand to work on party guests and I could have watched them all day long. They had a lot of long hair to work with but did different looks on everyone.
I was thrilled to get to bid on the silent auction shortly before closing time (event was three hours but the silent auction continued into future events so I do not know if I am a winner yet). The most rocking items were the Henri Bendel bags including a small raffia one with orange straw details. There were a lot of great items from Kopari in both the silent auction and the gift bag not to mention many several food items as featured at the brunch.
I spotted everyone’s favorite former RHONY Jill Zarin in the last half hour of the party scoping out the scene outside Topping Rose House since she will be having her Sixth Annual Luxury Lunch there this coming Saturday, July 28th from noon until four. This is her first ever Luxury Lunch in a space other than the house that she rented for years with her late husband, fabric biz mogul Bobby Zarin. All of us regulars at Jill’s lunch were pulling for Bobby last year since he was in the hospital when it was going on. He wanted his longtime wife to put on her annual event even though he was not feeling well because all the proceeds go to thyroid cancer research. This year we will undoubtedly he toasting him. Jill’s Luxury Lunch still has a few remaining tickets and will give you the rare opportunity to meet more than 60 brands under one tent. The super creative party planners Sean Koskii and Brian Kelly (known collectively as Tickets 2 Events) who put together the first Hamptons Interactive Influencer Brunch will be working this event, so you know that your surroundings will be gorgeous and that there will be plenty of activities to partake of and sights to see. One thing everyone’s especially excited about is Jill’s raffle of a rare Celine Bag called the Rebag X Kendra Thomas Rose Edge bag (pictured above) which is a ladylike white leather bag with a zipper front and three handpainted red roses (value $2600).
Tickets are available at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/jill-zarins-6th-annual-luxury-luncheon-tickets-46409161050.
