Irene Neuwirth recently turned 40—a major milestone that the jewelry designer didn’t just let her pass by quietly. Instead, she gathered her close friends for a weekend of celebrations in Mexico’s San Miguel de Allende, and judging by the guests (among them Pamela Love, Albertus Swanepoel, Dana Lorenz, Ileana Makri, Emily Holt, Meredith Melling, Sally Singer, Selby Drummond and Rickie de Sole) and their Instagrams (check out #40istheneuirene), everyone had a blast. CFDA.com got the inside scoop from fellow jewelry designer Marc Alary:
“Irene and I met for the first time while I was doing the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund and we – the 10 finalist designers – went to Los Angeles for the fashion show. Even before we met, I had already been a longtime admirer of Irene’s work, and it is so nice when you meet a person and they are as nice as you would want them to be. Irene is not only a good designer but she is also a very nice person – extremely generous and kind – and the two – good designer and nice person – don’t always come together.
Irene’s birthday took place in San Miguel de Allende which is an incredible, magical place. Most of my holidays are dictated by my second passion, surfing, so I’m not sure I would have ever thought of coming to San Miguel, which would have been a shame because this place is a real gem. Everything about this city is beautiful, from its colonial architecture with breathtaking houses painted in bright orange, yellow or blue to the plants and trees that are everywhere. Most of them produce the most exquisite flowers in so many different colors – it is pretty much an explosion of colors. I can see why Irene chose this place, as Irene is so big on color!
Irene has that rare quality of being able to gather a lot of great people around her, which for me is an attest to the nice person she is. When she invited me, I didn’t think of it as to be extravagant, as I really think she just wanted to share a great time with her friends, and I know that to be very genuine. I thought I had to be there.
The weekend was incredibly well-planned. It was simply amazing, from the people who helped us find the accommodation to the restaurants we went to and the birthday dinner that was just plain beautiful. Irene had booked a villa and arranged a seated dinner at the back of the garden. The tables were precisely arranged on a beautiful, immaculate fresh-cut lawn. There was a tent in case the weather didn’t cooperate. Personally, I think the tent added a lot as it was dressed with Mexican-colored cutout flags and gave a very nice light. Each table was very chic and had a big glass jar with a set of animal head maracas for each guest to bring to the dance floor!
The dinner menu was simply delicious. We all hit the dance floor, but the festivities didn’t stop there As Irene had arranged for make-up artists to give us traditional Mexican day of the dead makeup. That is the kind of thing you can never see me resisting! It is the kind of thing I knew Irene would do, and that is also a reason why I came to her birthday and why I like Irene so much.
While we were dancing to a pretty perfect playlist, the staff came and set up a small food stand and started to distribute fresh made churros and homemade burgers… What do you want more??
While all this was simply magical, for me, the highlight was the second night when Irene invited us home to a cocktail, and a band of mariachis arrived and started to play while some waiters distributed a small colored miniature jug necklace. Soon enough they were pouring tequila shots for us to drink, and we were asked outside where a mojigangas (giant puppets) parade lead us through the street of San Miguel to first the main place where Irene (and the rest of the guests) engaged with the puppets in a fantastic dance. This was incredible and I’m sure she enjoyed all of it.”