It makes sense that Condé Nast Traveler’s Hot List party is always held in a much-hyped, barely open venue—after all, the annual Hot List issue celebrates the year’s best new hotels and resorts. Armed with a 900-strong guest list that included Terrence Howard, Adam Brody, Julianne Moore, Claire Danes, and Ron Livingston, the magazine’s special events director, Lindsey Hicky, selected the Bowery Hotel for its new-kid-on-the-block cachet as well as its capacity. “I scour the city every year starting as early as December—you should see all the files in my office,” Hicky says. “But not every venue can handle the crowds and the build-out that this event requires.”Assisted by Delaney T. Bagwell, Hicky designed multiple lounges in the hotel’s second-floor event space for the April 19 party, including a lounge for Cunard filled with teak steamer chairs, vintage travel trunks, and models (from Andy King Events) dressed as bellhops and tuxedoed waiters. “It’s really great to be in a space that allows us to be creative with the sponsor areas,” Hicky says. “With the Bowery Hotel, we had something close to a blank slate, which you never get with a venue that already has really prominent Asian decor [like last year’s venue, Buddha-Bar].”
Lounges referenced brands in discreet and clever ways; the Land Rover lounge was filled with leather club chairs and avoided oversized signage, but had a miniature Land Rover model propped on a wheatgrass centerpiece (the car company also provided celebrity shuttling for the event).
—Sara Neuffer
Posted 05.01.07
Photos: BizBash
Lounges referenced brands in discreet and clever ways; the Land Rover lounge was filled with leather club chairs and avoided oversized signage, but had a miniature Land Rover model propped on a wheatgrass centerpiece (the car company also provided celebrity shuttling for the event).
—Sara Neuffer
Posted 05.01.07
Photos: BizBash
The San Diego lounge, with its overstuffed khaki couches, rattan furniture, dim lighting and flip-flop-wearing waiters, resembled a California beach house at sunset.
A silent auction benefiting the Red Cross’ Hot to Help campaign lined one section of the Bowery Hotel’s airy event space.
Guests who obtained VisitBritain’s Union Jack-uniformed employees’ stamps on their “passports” gained entry to a contest to win a trip to the U.K.
Hicky sourced themed uniforms for Andy King Events’ model bartenders, including bellhops for the Cunard lounge, and beach-friendly khaki shorts and flip-flops for caterwaiters in the San Diego lounge.
The understated Land Rover lounge referenced the brand with a model SUV propped in a wheatgrass centerpiece.
Cool Water and Cool Water Wave fragrances topped illuminated blue towers that stood opposite the men’s and women’s restrooms.
Guests tested their luck at the blackjack table in the MGM City Center area.
Those interested in more immediate pampering lined up for massages and manicures at the Leading Spas of the World section, where waiters (along with the masseurs and manicurists) donned antiseptic-looking white scrubs.
The Puerto Rican-inspired lounge on one of the hotel’s tented terraces featured tropical greens, lush photography from the magazine, and planter’s punch (Level vodka, mango juice, lemon juice, sugar, and a splash of grenadine).
Mark Van S. Studios projected shots of guests in the digital photobooth onto a Level-branded screen near the V.I.P. lounge.
