Pink and Sequins at the Frick Young Fellows Ball

“Who are these people?” is not the kind of question one expects to hear at a society ball. And yet it was asked, more than once last Thursday, at the Frick Collection Young Fellows Ball, a peacocky gala on the early spring social calendar.

“We’re the members group at the Frick, age 21 to 40, so that next generation of supporters of arts,” said Paul Arnhold, 37, a glassblower and real estate developer who is one of the ball’s chairmen.

That answers part of the question, but left hanging was the fact that there were so few recognizable names on the face sheet that organizers shared, and so many “random young people,” as one guest put it.

Perhaps it was the pandemic. This was the Frick’s first ball since 2019, and it took place in unfamiliar terrain: the Breuer building on Madison Avenue (formerly home of the Whitney Museum) while its 1914 Gilded Age mansion on Fifth Avenue undergoes renovation.

Around 8:30, 500 bright young things crowded into the lobby and basement, sequins and pink party dresses — so much pink — coloring the Brutalist Breuer bunker.

“Everybody dressed for a Frick event, but it’s a Whitney building,” said Lizzie Asher, a philanthropist and entrepreneur who wore a pink and mauve dress by Carolina Herrera, one of the evening’s sponsors. (Wes Gordon, Mr. Arnhold’s husband, is the label’s creative director.)

“I can’t say no to a sequin,” said Sarah Hoover, a former Gagosian gallery director, who is also listed on the invitation as another ball chairman. She was by the lobby bar, embracing her friend Indré Rockefeller. Nearby, Alessia Fendi held on to a sparkling multihued handbag. (“Fendi, of course,” she said.)

On the basement level, there was a DJ, another bar and a large tent where guests could sit and have a camera spin around them for a 360-degree photograph. “It’s bar mitzvah vibes,” one attendee said.

Few guests took the opportunity to explore the museum’s upper-floor galleries, perhaps because they missed seeing the old masters in their familiar home. Or perhaps they were not there to see art.

By 11, the bar mitzvah vibes continued as guests danced politely to Rihanna’s “Work” and Doja Cat’s “Say So.” Others sought refuge in the lobby, where they could chatter or collapse, like fallen magnolias, onto the Breuer’s starkly minimalist benches.

One such flower was the actress Zión Moreno, who plays Luna La, a glamorous and stylishly cruel teen on the reboot of “Gossip Girl.” What would her character think of this sparkly affair?

“Luna would throw up,” Ms. Moreno said. “But Zión loves it.”