From Stockholm to New York: Inside House of Dagmar's impossibly elegant downtown dinner

Everyone was welcome at Dagmar’s house – Dagmar being the grandmother of Swedish sisters Karin Söderlind and Sofia Wallenstam. The way their grandmother, a seamstress who fostered their love for fashion, lived her life and brought everyone together forms the ethos of their family-ran sustainable luxury brand House of Dagmar today.

Fresh from a summer in Europe where she’s been writing an upcoming project, French actress and model Rebecca Dayan co-hosted a dinner party with Söderlind and Wallenstam on Thursday at newly-opened corner spot Parcelle. The Greenwich Village outpost of the famed crowd-pleasing Dimes Square wine bar couldn’t have been a more perfect backdrop, given the assortment of vintage mid-century furniture from Scandinavia dotted around the room. It did actually feel quite like the group had taken over someone’s sophisticated candle-lit home for the evening. (A home that boasts over 500 unique and hard-to-find wines tucked away in the kitchen, that is.)

While House of Dagmar has been around for just shy of 20 years, the sisters only officially launched Stateside a year ago. Beth Buccini, who’s celebrating the 25th anniversary of her fashion mecca Kirna Zabête this weekend, no mean feat in today’s retail landscape, was the first US boutique to pick up the label. Perched at the table in the brand’s Sculpted Top in jet black, she beamed that she’s since sold “hundreds and hundreds” of the popular garment across her Manhattan and Hamptons boutiques. Moda Operandi’s Kelsey Lyle has picked it up too, noting that it’s flying across denim and shirting. Next up, Bergdorf Goodman has given the line the green light – so expect to see a lot more of the chic collarless blazers and classic wool suits on your next night out in the city.

“It looks good on everyone. You buy it once and can wear it for years in all these different ways,” Dayan said, emulating effortless ‘muse’ energy in a leather pencil skirt and white knit tank. Someone who echoed that sentiment was singer-songwriter Sophie Auster. Exactly a year ago, she attended House of Dagmar’s inaugural NYFW dinner in the brand’s open-back maxi dress while pregnant and has worn it a bunch since. She’s now readying to go on tour in Spain with her eight-month-old son Miles – and maybe the dress will be along for the ride too.

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The evening, which also welcomed the likes of DJ Isabelle Massenet, filmmaker Coco Baudelle, artists Brianna Lance and Quentin Jones, models Maya Stepper and Madhulika Sharma, and actresses Clara McGregor and Annabelle Dexter-Jones, included a menu offering garlic and pepper rigatoni, grilled sea bass, roasted fennel, and a cherry tomato and stracciatella salad. And plenty of Parcelle’s wine selections, of course.

Stylist Caitlin Burke and Dayan exchanged a cute moment while sitting together, as they clocked that Burke was wearing her vintage Elsa Peretti Open Bottle pendants with her all-white outfit. Dayan notably brought about a revival of interest in the iconic late jewellery designer’s work in recent years, when she breathed life into the character in the Netflix show Halston.

“I always say, I don't want people to buy too much – I want people to really think through how they purchase clothes,” Wallenstam said. “It's important to really invest in your garments, have them with you, and cherish them for many years. That's what we want Dagmar to be – looking at all the beautiful women in the room and seeing how they style it in their own way, it inspires us so much. We're so happy to come all the way here from Stockholm and build this little community in New York.”

Despite it being the eve before the NYFW shows officially kick off in the city, there were no signs of urgency to end the night as guests spilled out onto the terrace to share a cigarette and continue chatting well past 10.30 p.m. In lieu of dessert, bowls of sour Swedish candies then appeared – prompting those considering leaving to stay just a little longer. Dagmar would have approved.

See all the snapshots below: