Starting the Year With a Bon Mot

THE social calendar roared back to life on Tuesday night, when the YMA FSF Geoffrey Beene National Scholarship Awards held its annual dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria.

Among those who ducked in during the deafening cocktail hour was Jason Kidd of the New York Knicks, who wore a dark suit and tie. He didn’t linger — he had a Knicks event downtown — but his wife, Porschla, a former model, stayed on. “I don’t really have much to do with Jason’s clothes,” she said. “He’s a classics kind of guy. He sticks to his shirts, jackets, jeans.”

Adding to the festive din were the young scholar awardees, about 125 of them, crowding under picket-style signs that displayed their academic stripes, including Harvard, Pratt, Marist and even Wharton. With many sporting name tags, it felt like freshman orientation. That would make Alber Elbaz, one of the night’s honorees, the dean emeritus.

“It’s more than surreal; I just hope I keep it together on stage,” said Mr. Elbaz, who spent seven years working under Mr. Beene, who died in 2004. He wore a tuxedo (by Lanvin naturally) with an oversize velvet bow-tie and red suede sneakers by Golden Goose.

He was posed with admirers, including Alina Cho of CNN, the evening’s M.C. “It’s so comfortable,” she said of the one-shoulder, midnight blue Lanvin dress she wore. She brought her mother, Youngja, as her date.

In the dining room, cabbage slaw salads and bottles of white wine were already on the table. Seated at Table 33 were the designer Bibhu Mohapatra with Ms. Cho and Stefano Tonchi of W magazine. “My New Year’s resolution is to be a nice guy — no more fashion cat-fighting,” Mr. Mohapatra joked. “No, really, if I was to give advice to these young fashion students, it’s to always be nice. It really comes around in the industry.”

Over at Table 18, Mr. Elbaz made a connection with the writer Rula Jebreal. “How wonderful that we’re from the same country and he invited me and we’re sitting at the same table,” said Ms. Jebreal, who is Palestinian. (Mr. Elbaz is Israeli.)

Winners of the Geoffrey Beene national scholarships accepted their $30,000 awards. But no one could top Mr. Elbaz’s speech for the Fashion Impact Award, peppered with charming bon mots. He fondly recalled his many attempts to land an interview at Geoffrey Beene, and his eventually befriending the receptionist. “Her name is Joyce and she’s sitting with me tonight,” he said to warm laughter.

And of his first “office” there: “It was a coffee table in a dressing room, and I was sketching, sketching, sketching. No one even came to say, ‘Hi, my name is John.’ ”

His kicker, though, had people pulling out their smartphones and echoing it on Twitter. “Success is like a perfume,” he said. “You should always smell it but don’t you ever drink it.”