Inside the inaugural Bazaar Art Walk

On Thursday night, Harper’s Bazaar celebrated the start of London Gallery Weekend in style by inaugurating our specially curated route through the city centre.

The evening began with a champagne reception at Cristea Roberts Gallery and a private view of ‘Time’ by Vicken Parsons, the artist’s first UK show for four years. Bazaar’s editor-in-chief Lydia Slater welcomed guests alongside Sergio Momo, the CEO and founder of Xerjoff perfumes, whose aromas scented the gallery space as well as the beautiful maps and hand-held paper fans gifted to attendees, illustrated by the feminist artist Petra Borner.

Bazaar’s acting deputy editor, Helena Lee, hosted an illuminating conversation with Parsons and the designer Roksanda Ilinčić before guests, including Bianca Jagger, Damian Lewis, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Lubaina Himid made their way to White Cube to take in the vibrant, complex paintings of Danica Lundy’s ‘Boombox’.

We made our way through a drizzly Mayfair – Harriet Walter resplendent in a Roksanda trouser suit and a Bazaar umbrella, as Golda Rosheuvel delighted in rallying the group – to our final gallery. The evening came to an end in the elegant surroundings of Thaddaeus Ropac, where the crowd enjoyed the powerful canvases of the late American graphic artist Robert Rauschenberg. Then it was upstairs to Thaddaeus’s private apartment for cocktails inspired by Xerjoff scents and conjured up by the master mixologists of The Emory, served alongside delicious Cornish crab tacos and truffle and porcini pancakes. The last standing were rewarded with beautiful bouquets of sweet peas and white lilies from the tables, spilling into the streets of London like very glamorous bridesmaids.