Saks Fifth Avenue and Amazon have hit a milestone in their partnership: a weekend trip to the Hamptons.
Saks on Amazon is at The Hedges in East Hampton for a multiday pop-up, with “experiences” including trivia night with Sai De Silva, celestial cocktails with Markarian, and an all-weekend style suite. The inn’s first-floor lounge has been transformed into a showroom with curated racks of clothing, accessories and beauty products that visitors can browse and have delivered straight to their door via the storefront partnership on Amazon’s Luxury Stores platform, which launched earlier this year.
On Thursday night, the Hamptons collaboration kicked off with a leisurely outdoor dinner at the inn’s onsite restaurant Swifty’s. Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union served as cohosts for the event, along with Saks’ Kristin Maa and Amazon’s Trisha Gregory Morse.
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“ For me it’s like, how do I show up where I’m not too over the top, but I’m not too understated? How do you find that middle ground?” said Wade before dinner, mulling his sartorial approach. He was sipping a glass of rosé in the backyard of a private cottage as he and his wife got ready to head over for hosting duties. For Thursday’s dinner, the style assignment meant sneakers, Fear of God pants, and a beige Balmain emblem polo shirt. And a diamond link Tiffany necklace. “ My mentality of getting dressed is like, all right, this is a basic piece — and then I add or I take away, depending on what the event is,” he added.
The couple had just landed in East Hampton from Martha’s Vineyard, where Wade launched his cologne Intuition by Aramis. The couple has been spending the summer on the East Coast, including at their recently purchased house in North Fork, located close to friends. “We all have kids around the same age, so we wanted to bring everyone together over the summer,” he said. “So summer was all about family. And for me, golf.”
Wade is already anticipating a big moment at the end of the summer: his and Union’s 11-year wedding anniversary.
“ Just by being here, I already got a couple gifts that I can give my wife. I know what’s in her cart just by the conversation. So I wanna make sure I’m prepared,” he said.
The couple made their way past the Saks on Amazon branded bikes and over to where guests including Naomi Watts, Alexandra Daddario, Sabrina Elba, Nicky Hilton Rothschild, Saks’ Marc Metrick and Roopal Patel, and more were mingling and posing for photos in front of a hydrangea backdrop.
“Do what’s natural, babe,” Union called out, earning a smile from Wade as she watched her husband pose for his solo shots before she stepped back in the frame.
During cocktail hour, other guests like Don Lemon, Kate Love, Casey Fremont, Joey Wölffer and David Burtka wandered across the property’s lush backyard, and were greeted with a caviar bar underneath a green-striped tent, which will host the upcoming weekend’s “experiences.” There was also a Hugo spritz cart nearby and fire pits already ablaze for later in the night.
“ I’ve had my eye on this dress since the beginning of this summer, and I thought this was the perfect event,” said Rothschild of her “beachy” Johanna Ortiz dress. “ I ordered this Tuesday at three o’clock, and it was at my door the very next day.”
The speediness, of course, was courtesy of Saks on Amazon. “ Usually my Amazon packages are diapers, wipes, very mundane things. So to open it up to a beautiful designer dress is exciting,” she added.
”You know, I’m pretty sure we all have Amazon boxes at our door on the daily. I know I do,” said Rachel Zoe, dressed in a vintage rose-gold Gucci monogram kaftan for the occasion. “For me, summer means kaftans and wood stacked heels and raffia and lots of sunnies,” she said. For Zoe, summer also means time in the Hamptons, in shorter supply this summer as she’s been in Los Angeles filming “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.” This week, filming took the cast out east, and Zoe was taking a few extra days for herself before flying back to the West Coast.
Family time was a big topic of conversation for the crowd heading further into August and the end of summer.
“ I have a big milestone moment next week, which is dropping my son off to college,” said Watts, dressed in a white dress and vintage headscarf. “ So that is both wonderful and sad at the same time.” Afterward, she’ll head to the Venice Film Festival with husband Billy Crudup, who stars in Noah Baumbach’s film “Jay Kelly,” making its premiere at the festival.
After a candle-lit seated dinner, guests were invited back to the firepits to make s’mores. Wade detailed his technique, which involved fully lighting the marshmallow on fire. “I prefer it a little more burnt,” said Watts, earning high praise for her technique from onlookers at another firepit. Evan Ross Katz and Billy Jacobson helped maneuver the crisp marshmallow off the roasting stick and onto a slab of chocolate. “I think it’s a bit of a team effort,” they said.