12 Striking Ways to Use Stripes in Your Event Decor

For the Museum of Contemporary Art’s 2015 benefit in Chicago, HMR Designs used multicolored, striped fabrics in shades of red, burnt orange, royal blue, golden yellow, and chartreuse green.

"A concept I've wanted to do for a long time, this design was modernism at its most elemental," said HMR Designs’ Bill Heffernan at the time. "The approach was, in essence: Don't decorate the room–create the room. The bright, multicolored stripes were chosen for their boldness and to create an optical illusion, so as to challenge the senses of the guests."

Tables were also decked with vibrant stripes. See more: How a Museum Used Decor to Challenge Guests' Senses

To kickoff the back-to-school season this year, same-day delivery company Shipt launched a four-city consumer activation called the Shipt Back to School Bus. The mobile tour, which ran from July 20-Aug. 2, featured a branded school bus equipped with custom vignettes highlighting key data that the company discovered after polling parents, caregivers, teachers, and college students about this year's must-have classroom supplies, snack and lunch items, and dorm room essentials. The different categories were each color-coded, giving the bus' interior an eye-catching stripe effect. Shipt partnered with EventLink to produce the tour. See more: How Shipt Turned Data Into a Mobile Activation for Back-to-School Season

The Color Ball, a debutante ball in Houston, lived up to its name several years ago with this ribbon- and streamer-style design—complete with a dramatic, striped dance floor—by Todd Fiscus of Todd Events. Fiscus says the event featured “a group of clients that allowed me to present them the idea and the inspiration. No Pinterest. No copycat stuff. Just a cool cohesive thought. ... It was so fun and so vibrant, and the energy was palpable compared to other parties."

The Color Factory—a highly Instagrammable pop-up museum celebrating color and material—opened in 2017 in San Francisco. The 12,000-square-foot art installation took over a formerly vacant commercial building, which was covered in eye-catching vertical stripes.

The space was a collaboration between Jordan Ferney of the design and lifestyle website Oh Happy Day, local artist Leah Rosenberg, and graphic designer Erin Jang. “Color Factory enabled us to explore the meaning and context around an idea, and to create three-dimensional, tactile, multi-sensory experiences,” said Ferney, an event planner-turned-blogger and entrepreneur.

Inside the pop-up, color-filled spaces included a forest of 10,000 fluttering ribbons, a larger-than-life coloring book with a six-foot marker, and a pool of 207,000 yellow balls. Even the elevators—which were decked out in a striped design—encouraged photo ops. See more: Get Inspired by This 12,000-Square-Foot Tribute to Color

At the 2016 edition of Dining by Design New York—a fund-raiser from Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS that showcases various dining settings and vignettes—Interior Design magazine worked with the late architect Ali Tayar, in collaboration with SilverLining Interiors, on this dramatic black, white, and red space. Thick, bold stripes displaying the word "Hope" served as an eye-catching backdrop; the stripe effect continued to the table and floor.

In 2018, vodka brand Grey Goose hosted outdoor pop-up markets and dining experiences in collaboration in four cities across Canada. The aesthetic of the series paid homage to the brand’s limited-edition Riviera Series bottles, which featured blue-and-white striped umbrellas meant to symbolize summers in the French Riviera. At the Toronto edition, an installation of hanging, striped umbrellas created a fun photo op, designed by Pomp & Circumstance and Community Agency. 

"We wanted a fun and playful way for people to engage with the Grey Goose brand, and there’s nothing more iconic to the famous Cote D’Azur coastline than its blue and white umbrellas," said Grey Goose Canada’s Michael Corvese. See more: 12 French Riviera-Theme Ideas From Grey Goose's Pop-Up Market Series

In 2013, Schwarzkopf hosted a runway show in Los Angeles to demonstrate the year’s hair trends to a crowd of industry execs—and since salon pros aren’t afraid to experiment with color, the function quickly took a rainbow-hued spin. The show had a striped runway in punchy, tropical colors, while a canopy of color-blocked fringe dangled overhead. Surrounding the floor, ghost chairs had bold renditions of the beauty brand's logo. See more: Hair Show Gets a Dye Job With Colorful Runway and Canopy

Stripes can also make a major design impact when used minimally, like at Instagram's inaugural Coachella party in 2019. The social media platform teamed up with experiential agency Manifold and artist D'ana Nunez of COVL for Instagram Desert Chill. The look of the party centered around Nunez's abstract mural, which drew inspiration from the desert landscape and the 1970s. Manifold created a series of black-and-white striped lounge seating areas, offset by colorful pillows, props, and a photo-friendly neon palm garden. Coachella 2019: See Inside the Biggest Parties and Brand Activations

Seaside met slopeside at "Snow Beach," where artist Gray Malin brought one of his signature aerial beach photographs to life—in the snow—to celebrate the luxury of après-ski culture. Malin, known for his visionary aerial photography, partnered with retail and experiential brand ASPENX to outfit a corner of Aspen, Colo.'s Ajax Mountain in early 2022 in red-and-white striped cabanas, chaise lounges, umbrellas, and chairs.

"The red was a nice pop of color to the landscape, while the striped white offered a clean and simple look. This color combo also worked well with the beachy elements we incorporated, from constructing the lifeguard tower to the surfboards to the lounge seating and cabanas," Malin said of where he drew inspiration for the installation. See more: Gray Malin’s Mountainside Snow Beach Club Is Bringing Miami Heat to Après-Ski

The 2011 Emmys Governors Ball had the theme of "mod illusions" with a 1960s-style black-and-white decor scheme from Sequoia Productions that hearkened back to the era of Truman Capote's famous bash. Striped flooring made a big impact around the 60-foot-wide elevated circular dance floor, where a revolving orchestra platform served as the centerpiece. Striped chair covers continued the look throughout the ballroom. See more: '60s Mod Inspires Emmys' Graphic Black-and-White Governors Ball