Cee Lo Green, the headline star of Friday night's Macy's Passport Presents Glamorama, certainly hasn't been shy about appearing at events these days. Less frequently seen: candy served out of paint cans, silhouette art lounges, and bright pink replicas of Michelangelo's famous "David" statue.
After a fashion show and performance by the "Forget You" singer and electro-pop quartet Far East Movement at the Chicago Theatre, guests headed to Macy's State Street store for a highly produced after-party with an "ArtRageous" theme, colorful decor, and sponsor activations galore. "Each year we work to create a theme that will serve as a good context and backdrop for the fashions and will also translate to the after-party," said Mike Gansome, Macy's vice president of special productions.
Several sponsors got activations that tied directly to the arty theme. In the American Express lounge, which Frost lit in the brand's signature blue, silhouette artists created personalized portraits for guests, who took the images home in keepsake frames adorned with the company's logo. Local designers created sketches for the OfficeMax lounge, and spruced up the drawings with glued-on office products including paper clips, staples, and rubber bands. See's Candies set up a station that had sweets spilling out of open paint cans, and Kia sponsored a lounge area with works of art created out of car parts.
Frost's after-party decor stayed on cue, with ribbon-strewn frames hanging on the walls, colorful statues staggered throughout the event, and dancers performing in vignettes meant to resemble framed paintings.
The fashion-centric evening doubled as a fund-raiser, raking in $350,000 for the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana.