I get funny looks when I tell people I write about balls, big ol’ balls…and galas. I’m the Société Editor for Liberté Press! I write about people who are somebody. So … you! You’re somebody right? Like you, my holiday party season was nuts. Chestnuts. Latke loony! It was this way all year long.
I Coco Chanel counted: I attended 17 galas this year! I went to 48 events that Drew Altizer photographed. I am exhausted, and the glitter won’t come out of my bespoke pink rugs. I was a dizzy disco ball; I had a fairy godmother named Neiman Marcus. I saw you out and about. You looked marvelous.
Here’s my nice and naughty galas galavanted list:
FOG Design + Art Preview Gala, San Francisco Ballet Opening Night Gala, JCRC 75th Anniversary Gala, San Francisco Symphony Lunar New Year Concert & Banquet, ODC Dance Downtown Gala, San Francisco Zoo‘s ZooFest Gala , San Francisco Ballet Spring Festival , San Francisco Symphony’s Opening Gala, Opera Ball San Francisco Opera, Dress for Success Gala, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Annual Gala, SFJAZZ Gala, San Francisco Opera’s An Evening on the Stage, Hallyu! Nights Gala at the Asian Art Museum, Patron Preview Gala, The San Francisco Decorator Showcase, An Elegant Evening in the Court of Honor at the Legion of Honor Museum, Light Up the Night Blue Ribbon Celebration, Safe & Sound…
They are ranked in order of my enjoyment. Kidding! They might be somewhat chronological. As I look back at a banner ball year, I ask myself why’d I do it. Why do we shimmy into gowns, hunt for shoes, beg Blake Charles for hair help, and spend a lot of time (the Opera Ball was cocktails, dinner, a full length opera and an after party!) and substantial money on these one-night-only tours de force?
Principally, this is how we support our city’s arts and nonprofits. These extraordinary evenings often raise the biggest funds of their entire fiscal years. I also attend to support friends. Lots of them are co-chairs, committee members and even get honored, and their passions become my own. Plus they are relentless. Have you ever tried to tell Sharon Seto no? She chaired the Dress for Success Gala. Farah Makras introduced me to the nonprofit Safe & Sound; she co-chaired their gala. Lilian Tsai is deeply dedicated to ODC Dance. And Navid Armstrong, with the energy of a thousand sugarplums, supports everything, and I am always thrilled to sit at the gala tables she thoughtfully arranges. I adore these gala gals.
These events may sound stuffy but we have so much fun. It’s like grown up prom. Did you go to yours? I went with my best friend Emily. I was single, and her boyfriend was away at his first year of college. She was that cool. I guess that was my first gala gal experience. And like that partner-free prom of yore, I rolled solo to these 17 events.
Remember Teresa Rodriguez’s book that I edited and co-wrote, Fly Solo? It was a groundbreaking tome lauding solo travel. The same can be said of gala-ing. Many a gala gal chooses to leave her hubs home and party with friends. Plus it’s San Francisco so relationships are more frenetic than a Nutcracker at Pride Parade. Who knows if that pas de deux is a pas de trois? If you want to gala and you’re flying solo, fear not is what I’m saying.
I would have gone to even more than 17 galas in 2024 but I’m a standup comic so I work nights. I’m either in a dive bar listening to peepee jokes or raising an auction paddle for a panda enclosure. Nothing in between.
You’re like oh but all those rubber chicken banquets. Dude, hardly! With McCalls doing most of the catering, we ate gooooood, especially the desserts. For the masked Opera Ball, McCalls created individual little golden chocolate masks. J’adore!
Speaking of dish, we don’t. Though Oscar Wilde says hear no evil. speak no evil and you’ll never be invited to a party, I have no hot goss. Boo. I will dish on myself though – I didn’t nail every look. My favorite look of the year was for Opera Ball. I took off my glasses and wore contacts omg! My face got to see people! And the photos were fabulous thanks to the greatest innovation the world has ever known. Sure we can chopstick-grab rockets out of the sky now, but have you heard about glueless false eyelashes?! You just pop them on and the adhesive kicks in from your body heat or whatever I’m not a physicist. Eureka!
My worst lewk was Ballet Gala. My romantic pink floral gown appeared washed out and kinda dowdy in photos, even with the huge talents of Drew Altizer photographers who work caringly to get our best sides. Not even they could save me from giving gamaw’s couch vibes that night, or Dolores Umbridge meets Swan Lake. Depulso gown! I’m going down a Harry Potter rabbit hole. Which is where I should have thrown that dress.
Anyhoo, yes I wore 17 different gowns at the 17 galas I attended this year, but they were not all new. I will wear many of them again next year. Some women do a 2-5 year rotation, but my San Francisco apartment, even after I turned my food pantry into a gown closet, can’t fit 24 or 36 crinoline puff pieces.
As for puff pieces, this article is almost over. Thank you to the 17 galas I attended this year. You were exciting, inspiring, educational and delicious. We did lots of good. We tended to children’s education and safety, gave back to the institutions that give meaning and depth to our city, our museums and performing arts organizations. We led by example, signaling to our friends and followers that we are dedicated to the future of San Francisco, our caregivers, choreographers, families, and the next generation of performers and patrons.
All that glitters is giving, darling.
That’s why my balls are in your face so much. At @howdyblock on Instagram. I wish you a happy holiday season and a weird and wonderful Christmakkuh (they overlap this year, bringing double the light into the world). Happy healthy New Year! See you at the next gala, gal!
Very Sequinely Yours,
Stephanie Block