TOASTING TILLMAN: “I’ve never had to ring a man up and ask him out to dinner,” said Alex Shulman on Tuesday night, as she discussed her plot to lure the outgoing British Fashion Council chairman Harold Tillman to a surprise party in his honor. The first time she rang, “He rejected me. So I had to swallow my pride and say, ‘Can I have a date? Any date?’” Guests at 34, a restaurant near the U.S. Embassy in Grosvenor Square, included Sir Philip Green, Sarah Burton, Anya Hindmarch, Amanda Wakeley, Joseph Velosa, Joan Burstein, Natalie Massenet — who will replace Tillman as chairman next year — and Frances Corner.
Green, a longtime pal of Tillman’s, praised him for “always being on the phone, asking people for favors” on the BFC’s behalf. “Fashion’s a tough business, a tough game. And there are no free gifts. Well done, Harold,” said Green.