Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS opened the 17th annual Dining by Design at Pier 94 on March 21. The weekend-long event, part the Architectural Digest Home Design Show, held more than three dozen innovative and imaginative dining-room settings created by top tastemakers, interior designers, brands, design students, and collaborators. With each vignette vastly different from the next, the entire event serves as an invaluable source of design inspiration for event organizers everywhere.
This year the participating designers seemed to take a somewhat pared down approach to tabletops and spaces. Many environments were more closed off than in the past, creating a sense of intimacy with smaller seating arrangements and the use of round over long tables. (Was it perhaps a nod to the fashion community’s recent move to reduce the number guests at runway shows?) What some tables lacked in grandeur, however, was made up in eye-catching colors and unusual seating that ranged from hand-stitched Selleria leather chairs at Fendi to metallic gold tree-trunk-inspired seats at Arteriors.
Here's a look at some of the biggest highlights from Diffa's Dining by Design in New York.