Saturday Night Party in the Hamptons Gets a Gen Z Makeover

(Bloomberg) -- Standing on the sand at Surf Lodge in a white jumpsuit and sandals, Sterling McDavid talked about leaving Goldman Sachs to co-found a fashion brand, Burnett New York.

“Goldman was the best place to start a career,” said McDavid, 30. “The lessons were so critical -- about rigor, strategy, working with people.”

Now she’s leaning on those lessons in a new role -- as a founding member of the Contemporary Leaders Collective at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York. The group will organize studio visits, private-exhibition viewings and social outings for patrons ages 21 to 30.

The dinner in Montauk was one such event, an intimate affair, but the highlight of the summer is likely to be the Late Night Party at the Parrish on Saturday. The event starts at 10 p.m. after the museum’s main gala. Recording artist Alice Longyu Gao -- “Karma is a Witch” is her latest single -- will spin tunes, fresh from Ruschmeyer’s.

Larry Milstein, who recently left American Express to co-found PRZM, which aims to help legacy and other brands cater to millennials and Gen Z-ers, is chair of the Late Night Party and the Contemporary Leaders Collective.

“We’re trying to have fun and support a cultural institution -- they’re not mutually exclusive,” said Milstein, 24. “You can embrace all the facets of summer without compromising your commitment to things that you care about 365 days a year.”

McDavid, who back in Manhattan counts Unicef as her major volunteer commitment, said she’s looking to the Parrish to deepen her knowledge of female artists addressing social injustices, a focus of her nascent art collection. It also gives her a tie to her new East End community; she and her husband have recently bought a home in Bridgehampton, where plenty of her friends will be staying this weekend to attend the Late Night Party.

To contact the reporter on this story: Amanda Gordon in New York at agordon01@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net, Peter Eichenbaum

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