Dining by Design, the annual fund-raising event hosted by Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS, brings together top designers, brands, and local talent to create awe-inspiring dining settings—from lavish to minimal. This year, the weekend-long showcase, which is part of the Architectural Digest Home Design Show, took place at Pier 92 from Thursday to Monday.
While the vignettes featured an array of themes and styles, some trends did emerge, such as Hollywood glamour, vibrant eye-catching colors, and whimsical nature settings. Here's a look at some of the highlights.
Originally set designers, Lydia Marks and Lisa Frantz looked to their favorite period—1940s Hollywood glamour—for inspiration in creating the New York Design Center's vignette. A black-and-white forced perspective image served as the backdrop, while a large chandelier by Arteriors illuminated the space. Bright peacocks by Global Views hung out in the corner.
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Inspired by the ceramics of South African artist Ruan Hoffmann and murals by Rebecca Rebouche, interior designer Alexis Givens created a moonlight feast setting for Anthropologie with a ceiling covering made from bright blue-painted recycled plastic bottles.
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Anthropologie's hot pink and red flowers popped against the rich blue walls and table runners.
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Inspired by the Art Deco era, designer Antonino Buzzetta created a modern dining space for Michael C. Fina with a reflective gold wall covering and black lacquered chairs. "I wanted to create a space that was equally as elegant as it is seductive. The Art Deco era is the perfect culmination of my obsession with the fusion of gilded glamour and sublime luxury," Buzzetta said.
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Michael C. Fina's look featured luxe black and gold settings on a glass tabletop.
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A New Orleans garden dinner party, Ã la Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, was the theme of The New York Times dining space, designed by Robert Passal Interior and Architectural Design. The lush environment, which even included a mossy room spray, featured Passal's dinnerware collaboration with L'objet, along with Bradley Clifford's talon candlesticks and items from Bergdorf Goodman. The 250-year-old dining chairs were retrieved from an assembly hall in England.
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The opulent look for the New York Design Center's area was designed by Marks & Frantz and featured floral dinnerware by Lenox, glassware by Michael Wainwright, and flatware by Nambe.
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Visitors could go "backstage" with a vanity mirror, complete with makeup, at the New York Design Center's booth.
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New York City-based design team Dransfield & Ross said the zany style inspiration for Sunbrella's tableau came from the 1967 film Casino Royale. Ornate couture chandeliers popped against the fabric company's graphic stripe patterns.
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A colorful array of glassware and shag chairs completed the look of Sunbrella's dining space.
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Smartwater's space aimed to reflect the brand's natural water purification process, which is mirrored after rain clouds. The fluffy fixtures lit up like a storm above the simple table setting.
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The students from the New York School of Interior Design built a curved wall structure that mimicked a womb, protecting the diners inside the booth. The young designers said they wanted to "create a hug." The rest of the vignette was kept minimal in order to focus attention on the architectural element.
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The area sponsored by Ralph Lauren Home highlighted the brand's paint collection with paint cans filled with colorful blooms as centerpieces, paint-dipped wooden stirrers as place cards, and drop cloths and paint swatches as wall decor.
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Inspired by Marilyn Monroe, Manhattan magazine and Fendi Casa's booth featured a glamorous table with lots of reflected light and sparkly mesh-covered fixtures.
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Swedish design company Bolon covered every inch of its space with tangerine-colored floor covering, creating a uniform, but expressive, dining area.
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Stacy Garcia designed a modern floral fantasy with layers of wallpaper from the new Paper Muse Collection for York Wallcoverings.
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Whimsical touches like glass snails on the table settings were featured in Stacy Garcia's garden-theme space.
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Inspired by the Brutalist movement, in which concrete dominated, furnishings company Arteriors' dining vignette featured repeated geometric and abstract organic forms with rough textures and a dark palette.
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Hermès celebrated nomadism with a Silk Road-inspired mural and vibrant jewel tones.
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As part of its tablescape, Hermès debuted brand-new Ikat-patterned porcelain dinnerware.
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Stephen Burks, the designer of Roche Bobois Paris's Traveler chair, also created the company's installation, which was based around his furniture. The chairs evoked a cozy camp-like feel, creating an outdoor pavilion indoors with a projected fire by Levy Lighting.
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With a nod to the movie Garden State, actors dressed in Echo's new spring print were seated at the fabric company's dining table.
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Echo's dining space was immersed in the brand's Heirloom India collection of wallpapers and fabrics.
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![Venetian masks were created for guests at the dining event, while printed prop masks were available for the general audience to snap selfies. The designer 'wanted to create an art installation where not only the people [in the installation] were lost in print, but also the audience could get lost in print.'](https://img.bizbash.com/files/base/bizbash/bzb/image/2015/03/img_1703_2_web.png?auto=format%2Ccompress&q=70&w=400)
Venetian masks were created for guests at the dining event, while printed prop masks were available for the general audience to snap selfies. The designer "wanted to create an art installation where not only the people [in the installation] were lost in print, but also the audience could get lost in print."
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Designed by world-renowned artist Hunt Slonem, Kravet Inc.'s vignette featured bright paintings of exotic animals and tropical plant life.
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Kravet Inc.'s second vignette included tableware with bold sketches of rabbits.
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Interior designer Marc Blackwell created a vignette with the message, "Compassion Begets Art," in honor of Diffa's mission. The dining table included structural curved chairs with woven fabric in different colors.
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Event planner and Architectural Digest special projects editor Bronson van Wyck created a party tent to celebrate the first days of spring for the magazine's booth.
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Gensler and 3form brought the outdoors in with Astroturf as a floor covering, white wire chairs, and vivid blue tableware. Images of a modern house served as the backdrop.
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Inspired by Rio de Janeiro, designer Corey Damen Jenkins created a dining space for Beacon Hill with sophisticated and bohemian elements, including a mix of luxe dining chairs and a colorful mosaic textile for the tabletop.
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