Sarah Jessica Parker to be Honored at New York City Ballet’s 10th Annual Fall Fashion Gala in September

New York City Ballet will present its tenth annual Fall Fashion Gala on Wednesday, September 28, 2022 at 7pm at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center.
A celebration of dance and fashion, this year’s event will feature World Premiere ballets by choreographers Kyle Abraham and Gianna Reisen, the first-ever live performance of Justin Peck’s Solo, and the fourth movement and finale from the George Balanchine masterpiece Symphony in C.

Abraham’s new ballet will feature costumes by Giles Deacon who also designed the costumes for The Runaway, which Abraham choreographed for the 2018 Fall Fashion Gala. Dan Scully, who also collaborated with Abraham on The Runaway, will design the lighting.
Reisen’s new ballet, her third for New York City Ballet, will have costumes designed by Alejandro Gómez Palomo featuring Swarovski crystals. The lighting for Reisen’s ballet will be designed by Mark Stanley, NYCB’s Resident Lighting Designer.
The music for the Abraham and Reisen premieres will be announced at a later date.
The gala program will also include the live performance premiere of Justin Peck’s Solo, which was created for NYCB’s 2021 Virtual Spring Gala film directed by Sofia Coppola. The 2022 Fall Fashion Gala will be the first time that Solo, which is set to Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, will be performed live. For the occasion, the ballet will feature new costume design by Raf Simons, who previously collaborated with Peck on Glass Handel, the 2018 multi-media installation featuring countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo. Solo will feature lighting design by Stanley, who also designed the lighting for the film version of the ballet.

The gala evening will also include the fourth movement and finale from George Balanchine’s Symphony in C, which was choreographed in 1947 to the music of Georges Bizet. In 2012, NYCB’s production of the ballet was re-costumed with new designs by Marc Happel, NYCB’s Director of Costumes; Symphony in C also features lighting by Stanley.
This year’s event will honor Sarah Jessica Parker, a vice chair of the NYCB Board of Directors, who conceived the Fall Fashion Gala in 2012, the first year of which celebrated the legendary designer Valentino. Since then, the Fall Fashion Gala has raised more than $24 million for New York City Ballet.

A highlight of the fall season in New York City, over the past ten years the event has also featured costumes designed by the late Virgil Abloh of Off-White™, Rosie Assoulin, Thom Browne, Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, Tsumori Chisato, Peter Copping for Oscar de la Renta, Esteban Cortázar, Giles Deacon, Alberta Ferretti, Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim of MONSE and Oscar de la Renta, Prabal Gurung, Carolina Herrera, Mary Katrantzou, Humberto Leon of Opening Ceremony and Kenzo, Hanako Maeda of ADEAM, Marta Marques and Paulo Almeida of Marques’Almeida, Zuhair Murad, Zac Posen, Gareth Pugh, Narciso Rodriguez, Christopher John Rogers, Jonathan Saunders, Anna Sui, Olivier Theyskens, Iris van Herpen, Dries Van Noten, and Jason Wu. All of the designs have been created in house at the New York City Ballet Costume Shop in collaboration with the designers and NYCB’s Director of Costumes Marc Happel.

Joining Parker as Chairs of the 2022 Fall Fashion Gala are Honorary Chair Steven Kolb, CEO of the Council of Fashion Designers of America; and co-Chairs Georgina Bloomberg, Andy Cohen, Laverne Cox, Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy, Jill Kargman, Diane Kruger, Mazdack and Zanna Rassi, Deborah Roberts, Jordan Roth, and Lizzie Tisch.

Benefit-priced tickets for the gala evening, which include the 7pm performance, a pre-performance reception, and black-tie supper ball following the performance, are available through the NYCB Special Events Office at 212-870-5585 and at nycballet.com/fallgala. Tickets for the performance only start at $38 and will be available beginning August 8 at nycballet.com, by calling 212-496-0600, or at the David H. Koch Theater box office, located at West 63rd Street and Columbus Avenue.

Costume Design by Giles Deacon

Kyle Abraham is a choreographer and the artistic director of A.I.M. Born in Pittsburgh where he began his dance training at the Civic Light Opera Academy and the Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts School, Abraham went on to study dance at SUNY Purchase. He received an MFA from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and holds an honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from Washington Jefferson College.
In 2005, Abraham founded his acclaimed modern dance company A.I.M (previously called Abraham.In.Motion), which tours a repertory by Abraham and other dance artists internationally. A 2013 MacArthur Fellow, Abraham is also a 2016 Doris Duke Award recipient and a 2012 USA Ford Fellow, and has received such awards as the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award, the Bessie Award for Outstanding Performance in Dance, and the Princess Grace Statue Award.

For NYCB, Abraham has created The Runaway and the films Ces noms que nous portons, a co-production with Lincoln Center, and When We Fell. He has also created works for other acclaimed dance organizations including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Paul Taylor Dance Company, The Royal Ballet, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, among others. Additionally, he was one of four choreographers who collaborated with former NYCB Principal Dancer Wendy Whelan on Restless Creature in 2013. He has also created commissioned solo works for American Ballet Theatre Principal Dancers Misty Copeland and Calvin Royal III, for New York City Center’s Fall For Dance Festival in 2019 and 2020.

Formerly a Visiting Professor in Residence at the University of California, Los Angeles, Abraham holds the Claude and Alfred Mann Endowed Professorship in Dance at the University of Southern California Glorya Kaufman School of Dance.
Giles Deacon is a London-based couture designer and illustrator mixing fashion, fine art, theatre, and grand scale glamour, known for his expertly crafted pieces using bespoke designed fabrics and intricate embellishments. His pieces are worn and collected the world over by private clients, red carpet celebrities, and royalty, with pieces in the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, and
the Museum of Fine Art Boston. As a costume designer Deacon has worked with New York City Ballet, Marvel, and Lions Gate Films, among others.

After graduating from London’s Central Saint Martins in 1992, Deacon worked with Tom Ford at Gucci and Jean-Charles de Castelbajac in Paris. From 1998 until 2002 he designed at Bottega Veneta and the Gucci group. Launching his eponymous label in 2004, Deacon went on to win “Best New Designer” at the British Fashion Awards before receiving “The British Designer of the Year” title two years later. In 2009 Deacon was awarded the prestigious ANDAM Fashion Award in Paris.

In 2016 Deacon launched his inaugural couture collection in Paris. He is a visiting lecturer at Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art. The book GilesSølveKatie, documenting the relationship between Emmy Award-winning photographer Solve Sundsbo and Katie Grand, stylist and Editor in Chief of Love Magazine, was published in 2018.

World Premiere by GIANNA REISEN

Costume Design by ALEJANDRO GÓMEZ PALOMO

Gianna Reisen is a New York City-based choreographer and movement director. Born in Wyckoff, New Jersey, she trained locally at In the Spotlight Dance Studio before entering the School of American Ballet, the official school of NYCB, in 2010.
Reisen choreographed for SAB’s Student Choreography Workshop in 2015 and for the New York Choreographic Institute in 2016, and became the youngest choreographer in NYCB’s history with her first work for the Company, Composer’s Holiday, which premiered at the 2017 Fall Fashion Gala. Judah, which premiered in 2018, was her second work for NYCB.

A former apprentice with Ballet Semperoper Dresden, Reisen is also a former dancer with L.A. Dance Project, where she choreographed Rising Water (2019). She has also choreographed for SAB’s annual Workshop performances, SAB’s Winter Ball, and the Columbia Ballet Collaborative.

Alejandro Gómez Palomo was born in Posadas, Spain, and is the designer and creative director of Palomo Spain, the fashion label he launched in his hometown, a small village outside of Cordoba. Combining the dramatic spirit of southern Spain with the sophisticated, urban street style of London, where he spent his formative years, Palomo’s glamorous and exquisitely made designs have been praised by the fashion press and worn by celebrities such as Beyoncé, Harry Styles, Rita Ora, and Miley Cyrus.

Palomo’s graduation collection for the London College of Fashion featured a fusion of men’s tailoring techniques and feminine lines, and was acclaimed by both the public and press. Upon returning to Spain and opening his atelier in Posadas, the designer debuted the first Palomo Spain collection in 2016. Titled “Orlando,” the collection was inspired by both Virginia Woolf’s novel and Sally Potter’s celluloid version of it.

The following year Palomo was invited by the Council of Fashion Designers of America to present a collection at New York Men’s Fashion Week, a show that was hailed as a highlight of the season. Weeks later, the collection was shown in Madrid, to similar acclaim, leading to an invitation by the LVMH Talents Committee to participate in the prestigious LVMH prize.

Palomo was also invited by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode in Paris to present his autumn/winter 2018 collection, “The Hunting,” becoming the first Spanish brand to be invited to do so. With its historical references and sexy, modern twist, the collection became an immediate hit with international press and buyers alike.
Palomo’s awards include the 2021 Best Designer of the Year at the Hoy Magazine Awards, which recognize Spanish culture, for his “Cordoba” collection which was presented on the Paseo del Prado in Madrid.

Live Performance Premiere of Solo by Justin Peck

Costume Design by RAF SIMONS

Justin Peck is the Resident Choreographer and Artistic Advisor of New York City Ballet. He has created more than 45 works for NYCB and other dance companies around the world, including the Paris Opéra Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Houston Ballet, L.A. Dance Project, and The Juilliard School. His works have also been performed by Dutch National Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Acosta Danza, and Hong Kong Ballet, among other companies.
A native of San Diego, California, Peck studied at California Ballet before enrolling at the School of American Ballet in 2003. He joined NYCB as a dancer in 2007 and was promoted to Soloist in 2013.

Peck first choreographed as a student at SAB in 2005. He participated in a working session at the New York Choreographic Institute, an affiliate of NYCB, in the fall of 2009, and received NYCI’s first year-long choreographic residency in 2011. He was named NYCB’s Resident Choreographer, the second in the Company’s history, in July 2014, and was also appointed as Artistic Advisor in February 2019. He concluded his career as a dancer with NYCB following the Company’s 2019 Spring Season.

Peck was the subject of the 2014 documentary Ballet 422, which followed him for two months as he created NYCB’s 422nd original ballet, Paz de la Jolla. In 2015, his ballet Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes won the Bessie Award for Outstanding Production and he is also the recipient of the 2018 Ted Arison Young Artist Award. Peck won a 2018 Tony Award for his choreography for the Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, and he is the choreographer of Steven Spielberg’s award-winning film adaptation of West Side Story.

Raf Simons is a Belgian fashion designer who launched his eponymous label in 1995. He is also currently the co-creative director of Prada alongside Miuccia Prada. He was formerly Chief Creative Officer at Calvin Klein from 2016 to 2018, where he won CFDA Womenswear Designer of the Year in 2017 and 2018, and CFDA Menswear Designer of the Year in 2017
. Simons has also held the positions of Artistic Director of Christian Dior for women’s Haute Couture, Ready-to-Wear, and Accessory collections, and Creative Director of Jil Sander.

Born in Neerpelt, Belgium, Simons studied Industrial Design and worked as a furniture designer for galleries and private interiors until his radical change of profession at the encouragement of Linda Loppa, head of the Fashion Department of the Antwerp Royal Academy. Formerly head professor of the Fashion Department of the University of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria from 2000 until 2005, he also served as President of the Fashion Jury of the Hyères 26th International Festival of Fashion and Photography in 2011; and curated Transmission 1, a three-day multidisciplinary event in Berlin initiated and sponsored by Mercedes-Benz also that year.

His other awards include the Prize for General Cultural Merit at the Ultima’s – the Flemish Culture Prizes granted by the Department of Culture, Youth and Media of the Flemish Government, which he received in 2017.