Decor

A display of 1,200 votive candles lined the stairs in the Great Hall at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and was one of the first visuals the 900 guests encountered as they arrived from the St. James Theatre for the opening night party for Bullets Over Broadway.

Guests could also deliver a high-tech message to Montblanc via a digital screen, which then displayed their hand-written messages on a dedicated video wall.

The video wall came to life in the Rainbow Room, framed in red and surrounded by images of celebrities and society icons wearing Montblanc jewelry.

After dinner, Foster the People performed several songs, including their hits “Pumped Up Kicks," “Helena Beat,” and “Don’t Stop (Color on the Walls)” to an enthusiastic crowd.

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.

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.