Photo Willem Dafoe and his wife, the film director Giada Colagrande, at the Prada party in Milan, with the actress Valeria Golino in the background. Credit Alessandro Grassani for The New York Times
MILAN — Is there any place quieter than Milan on a summer Sunday? The sidewalks have been rolled up since Friday, when anyone who can afford it took off for the weekend to some country place beside one of Lombardy's jewel-like lakes or, perhaps, an old painted house in the Engadine Valley of Switzerland. It takes more to lure those people back to the city than some potato chips in a bowl and a bottle of budget rosé.
Knowing this, Miuccia Prada and her husband, Patrizio Bertelli, Prada's chief executive, sent invitations weeks ago to what was characterized as a small private dinner, to be held at the couple's foundation on Milan's perimeter, and then mobilized the forces of their multibillion-dollar fashion empire to populate that dinner with the most prominent citizens of town: fat cats, plutocrats, high-level bureaucrats and, of course, the aristocrats whose family names grace streets and buildings throughout this ancient capital of the north.
Photo Jessica Chastain at the Prada Foundation, where the dinner was held. Credit Alessandro Grassani for The New York Times
Thus on a beautiful summer evening, the de Chirico-esque plaza within the walled Prada Foundation compound — on the grounds of a former brandy distillery — resembled the set of a Visconti movie, one featuring the director's actual descendants.
There, for instance, was his nephew and namesake Luchino sipping an ice-cold Negroni as he talked with a member of the Brandolini D'Adda family (although, perhaps it was a Caracciolo or a De Benedetti or a Clavarino or a Melzi D'Eril or a Galateria di Genola or even a Belgiojoso) about the challenges of running the Medieval castle and village he and his sister, Verdi, inherited several hours outside Milan.
Not far from them sat a talking automaton from an insta llation by the Polish artist Goshka Macuga. It had one foot encased in a brick, the other in ooze. Moving its arms in a disturbingly lifelike way, the bearded contraption croaked out oracular utterances about the end of mankind.
Waiters clad in livery from Mercatores, the uniform store patronized by the elite of Milan, gave the art gizmo a wide berth as they circulated with square trays of tiny quiches stuffed with baby summer vegetables or anchovies on toast.
Into the cool evening air, the Russian model Sasha Pivovarova blew smoke from a cigarette bummed from Milla Jovovich. And the editor and longtime Prada stylist Katie Grand talked shop with the fashion critic Tim Blanks, as Diego Della Valle, the billionaire philanthropist and owner of Tod's, air-kissed — left cheek to right, in the Italian fashion — Federico Marchetti, the self-made magnate who founded and runs the Yoox Net-a-Porter Group, Europe's largest e-tailer.
And then the energetic Mr. Marchetti, seeing an American friend, darted over to regale him with stories about another recent dinner party of note, this one at Bill Gates's house outside Seattle, the one where he keeps the Codex Leicester by da Vinci on view.
Photo Miuccia Prada — and her husband, Patrizio Bertelli, Prada's chief executive — were the hosts. Credit Alessandro Grassani for The New York Times
"I asked him for selfie!" Mr. Marchetti said, scrolling through his phone to find the shot.
Carine Roitfeld, among the more redoubtable multihyphenates in fashion, sidled up to the bar and ordered her own Negroni. "Make it very light on alcohol," she told an uncomprehending waiter, who poured a healthy shot of gin into the classic aperitif (one part gin, one part vermouth rosso, one part Campari, garnished with orange peel) that some consider summer in a glass.
Ms. Roitfeld took a sip and waxed philosophical, though not in so doomful a manner as the mechanical Cassandra nearby.
She has been clearing her life of neg ative-energy people, Ms. Roitfeld said, and now felt much lighter as a consequence. "The secret to everything in life is learning to say no," she said, adding that Gisele Bündchen gave her that choice piece of advice.
Photo The party entertainment included a talking figure by the the artist Goshka Macuga. Credit Alessandro Grassani for The New York Times
The lightest and briefest of rain showers fell as Ms. Prada, the hostess, walked solo across the courtyard and into the bar area. Soon, a dinner gong sounded, and guests like the actors Willem Dafoe, Jessica Chastain and Ansel Elgort; the artists Francesco Vezzoli and Nathalie Djurberg; and the designer Raf Simons moseyed into the foundation's Podium building. There were some 300 guests in all.
Before taking seats at tables set up in concentric circles like the fortifications around a castle, a few people stopped and looked at the sky.
A rainbow had formed over the Prada Foundation. And, regardless of whether the guests were titled, famous, rich beyond dreams of avarice, or winners of some genetic lottery, s imple wonder momentarily took hold of them.
Then they all pulled out their phones and snapped it for Instagram.
Correction: June 21, 2016
An earlier version of this article misspelled an Italian family name. It is Galateria di Genola, not Galeteria di Genola.
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