I never imagined I'd be writing the words 'Tatler's lesbian
party' but after the event earlier this month, which saw lesbian
(and bisexual) A-listers including Mary Portas and her (heavily
pregnant) wife Melanie Rickey, Alison Goldfrapp, Sue Perkins,
Stella Duffy and her life-partner Shelley Silas, actress Sophie
Ward and her civil partner Renna Branning, Clare Balding and her
spouse Alice Arnold, Gillian Anderson and Fiona Shaw, I have to say
that as fabulous as it was, it was less unexpected an event than
you may think.
After all, lesbians and bisexuals have been very much a fixture
in High Society; just think of Virginia Woolf, Vita Sackville-West,
Mercedes D'Acosta, Natalie Barney, Lady Ottoline Morrell (friend of
TS Elliot and sometime lover painter Dora Carrington) who hosted
and frequented some of the most decadent and infamous parties
around 100 years ago.
Tatler editor Kate Reardon decided to host the party just before
World Pride at the glam Quintessentially building. The
award-winning events company branded by Tatler as the 'party
planning superstar' is co-owned and run by Anabel Fielding, wife of
former DIVA fashion editor Katy Taylor, so the collaboration was a
natural fit. Reardon had noticed that whereas gay men were widely
accepted, visible and celebrated at society events, lesbians
apparently were not and so she decided something ought to be done
about it.
So she invited seven out lesbians: Sue Perkins, actress Sophie
Ward, model Eden Clarke, eco-activist Tamsin Omond, writer Emma
Kennedy as well as Maia Kawai-Calderhead (who works for an
in-flight retail company), Jacynta Mirmikidis (lawyer and owner of
lettings agency www.leavethekeys.co.uk) to
be photographed and featured them in her magazine. It's anyone's
guess how or why she settled on the final seven and, as I told the
Independent on Sunday when they asked me what I thought about the
event, it seemed an ecclectic choice of women who share in common
their sexuality and social rank - namely status acquired through
money or celebrity or in some cases, both.
One of the highlights of the evening was the making of the
brilliant video (see below) by Daisy Jenks which saw me and
other party guests lip-synching to the words of LMFAO's 'I'm sexy
and I know it'. Check it!
