Black and white theme

Essence magazine celebrated the fifth anniversary of this event at the Beverly Hills Hotel on Thursday. Producer Caravents redesigned the stage set in a nod to the milestone, with custom dupioni-wrapped panels and black plexi lettering bearing the image of the award show's statuette and the numeral five, created specifically for the event's anniversary and now-established brand.

The arrivals carpet was broadcast at both essence.com and UStream, a new element for this year that carried the event's energy outside the boundaries of the building. Caravents handled the live stream.

Caravents brought a bit of black-and-white patterning into the event's look, and made use of silver dupioni, black lacquer, white suede, and generous purple blooms from R. Jack Balthazar.

Champagne from sponsor Moet flowed in the lounge, where a screen showed the activity around the Twitter hashtag #EssenceBWIH, fed in part from a group at the Lincoln blogger bar. An all-white and Lucite Smartwater bar got a clean look, and a retrospective black-and-white photo wall displayed all past honorees over the last five years.

Sponsor L’Oréal provided touch-ups along one wall of the luxe, feminine-feeling sponsor lounge tent adjacent to the ballroom. Lighten Up handled the lighting, Classic Party Rentals the rentals, and Meyerson the security for the A-list crowd.