Athena Calderone Hosted a Dinner on the Beach With Zimmermann

When Athena Calderone hosts a dinner party, you know every inch of it will be highly photogenic. And that was the case on Friday evening, on a beach in Amagansett, where she hosted a sunset meal on the sand to celebrate her longtime friends and collaborators Nicky and Simone Zimmermann of Zimmermann. 

String lights created a canopy overhead while plush poufs surrounded a low table which was dressed in a white eyelet tablecloth—a textile inspired by Calderone’s very first dress by the designers. Plus, a yellow textile motif reminiscent of the sunset was transformed into scalloped edge napkins. 

For dinner, the tastemaker served a BBQ meal inspired by the Zimmermanns’s native Australia. The florals by Missi Flowers, meanwhile, were hyperlocal. “The inspiration for the florals came directly from the surrounding wild foliage found in the Amagansett dunes—seagrass, beach plum, dainty and delicate Queen Anne’s lace,” explained Calderone. “Most everything, in fact, was local—even the rocks that held down our menu and name cards were gathered from the beach!”

There to take in all the beauty were Naomi Watts, Emma Roberts, Bambi Northwood-Blyth, Casey Fremont, Lilli Buffet, Hannah Fallis Bronfman, Katie Couric, Charlotte Groeneveld, Nicky Rothschild Hilton, Nina Agdal, Noor Tagouri, Kit Keenan, Roopal Patel, and editors Amy Astley and Laura Brown. 

Two noticeably absent individuals were Nicky and Simone of Zimmermann—who were back home in Australia but fully represented via the gossamer floral frocks on all the bodies of the guests and the easy elegant spirit of the night. “With Nicky and Simone being unable to attend, I wanted them to have a presence in every facet of this dinner,” Calderone continued. Mission accomplished.