Everything was coming up roses—literally—at one of the year’s most elusive and exclusive after-parties. Hundreds of them, velvety and red, clung to the walls of The Mark Hotel like fashion week veterans angling for a camera flash. And if Gypsy’s indomitable Mama Rose was anywhere in sight, she’d likely have been crooning from a fainting couch—or more realistically, Audra McDonald was upstairs icing her Tony-nominated vocal cords after a marathon night on the Met steps.

Meanwhile, Sabrina Carpenter made a rather cinematic return to The Mark, draped in a canary-yellow fur coat with a Vuitton bag to match, puffing on a cigar like a 1940s ingénue who just fired her agent. Nearly 60 celebs had used the five-star Upper East Side property as their glam-up ground zero—now it was back to basecamp for the real event: the unwind.

The dress code for the evening’s parties nodded to the Met’s spring exhibition, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, and translated into something looser and lower lit—“tailored for you,” but with a higher hem. By the time The Mark’s signature Haute Dog Cart was dishing out hot dogs and fries, stars were already doing outfit changes worthy of backstage quick rigs. Leon Bridges swapped his red-and-black pinstripe suit for a leather look and brown tee, sipping a cocktail........

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