After half a century there is a lot to commemorate, and all around town friends and colleagues of noted designer Mario Buatta are lifting their glasses to toast his retrospective namesake book. Weighing well over a hefty five pounds Rizzoli’s Mario Buatta: Fifty Years of American Interior Decoration describes Buatta’s background in Staten Island, and the inspiration and support of his mother and Aunt Mary to whom the book is dedicated.
More than 400 pages of photographs illustrate his influential style in pictures of rooms created for newscaster Barbara Walters, singer Mariah Carey, designer Cathy Hardwick and society columnist Aileen Mehle. All of the homes ranged from exclusive apartments on Fifth Avenue to homes in Manila, Tulsa, Biscayne Bay, to say nothing of Washington DC’s Blair House for visiting guests of the President.
October had barely begun when Buatta appeared at the Avenue Antiques Art & Design Show the week his book was released. Dapper with a scarf and walking stick, he attended the opening reception and returned to lecture at the New York School of Design’s Day of Design.
Crowds assembled at Mecox Gallery on Lexington Avenue for another pre-publication date opportunity to purchase the book and have it signed by the author.
Emcee at the annual Casita Maria gala at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Buatta escorted columnist legend Aileen Mehle and at the microphone had another opportunity to mention the tome to hundreds of guests there in support of the important center for arts and education in the Bronx.
A crowning event was a reception held at the Four Seasons restaurant. Hosted by the decorator’s good friends Wilbur and Hilary Geary Ross, dozens of pals stood in line to have Mario pen dedications in copies of the book, which were gifts of the host couple. A plastic severed hand, one of the decorator’s trademark practical jokes aided in the signing.
Greeting guests, Wilbur Ross saluted the decorator whose work for several Ross homes is pictured in the book, and joked about Buatta’s billing procedures, proposing in jest that clients set up a foundation for victims of his unusual accounting. And then, celebrating one day late, the crowd sang “Happy Birthday, dear Mario” and sampled chocolate layer birthday cake. Although my flash attachment gave out, I captured silhouette snaps of some of the guests. Everyone agreed it was a beautiful Buattiful evening.
And the celebrations go on and on. Subsequently we found Buatta back at the Armory signing copies for the Friends of Park Avenue at the International Fine Art & Antiques Show. Also on the docket, a lecture at the Horticultural Society, a party at First Dibs then fetes across the country in Texas, Chicago, California and Florida. There are rumors that more than forty events have been planned, equaling one per day for more than a month; practically an event for each year of the decorator’s half-century illustrious career.
