Members of the uber-exclusive Southampton Bathing Corp. are furious after a list of proposed new members was sent out — which included fashion and social-scene staples Lauren Santo Domingo and her husband Andres.
Sources tell us the ultra-WASP club usually only takes the children and spouses of those who already belong. So members were shocked last week to get a “proposed members list” which includes the Vogue contributing editor who often appears in its pages and is the director of online fashion retailer Moda Operandi and Andres, the billionaire heir to Colombia’s richest beer family. Also on the proposed list was Andres’ financier brother Alejandro Santo Domingo.
One member sniffed, “The Beach Club is the hardest club to get into in the Hamptons. It usually only takes the children of members. Publicity is avoided at all cost. This is a place that sent women home for wearing bikinis in the 1950s. It is not the place for a Vogue shoot.
“I am shocked that it appears the club might accept the Santo Domingos. Lauren courts publicity and that is exactly what the club eschews. Further, by sending out the ‘proposed’ list to all members, one is given the opportunity to say you don’t want them as members,” our source continued. “And it is not like they are Hamptons fixtures who are now applying for membership. They just bought this house for about $30 million in Southampton.”
The venerable institution, nicknamed “Beach Club” on Gin Lane, was immortalized in Tom Wolfe’s classic “The Bonfire of the Vanities” and boasts members including Elena Ford, Nina Griscom, Cristina Greeven Cuomo and Muffie Potter Aston.
While the Santo Domingos didn’t get back to us last night, Alejandro was seconded by art dealer Baird Ryan. Lauren and Andres got a letter of support from art dealer Nicholas Acquavella.
Previously, the family of Walter Noel, co-founder of the Greenwich, Conn., hedge fund that invested $7.5 billion with Bernie Madoff, wasn’t welcomed with open arms by the club and was blackballed in 2001.