This week's roundup includes a color-blocked sandwich buffet in Los Angeles, a napkin caricature artist in New York, a nature-inspired bar in Washington, and a "love factory" at Moncler Grenoble's fall/winter 2015-2016 fashion presentation.
At a soup and sandwich bar from Heirloom L.A. catering, color-blocked paper wrapped sandwiches on the buffet.
Men’s fashion site JackThreads held a launch party for its new collection of Westbrook Frames—the result of a collaboration with N.B.A. star Russell Westbrook—on February 12 at 214 Lafayette Street in New York. Napkin Killa, an artist who creates caricatures on cocktail napkins, had his own station at the event where he drew portraits of guests. The event was produced by Engine Shop.
A Washington couple’s love of nature inspired the event spaces at an over-the-top joint birthday party in the fall at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington. A custom bar was created with textured faux stone and had real stones at the foot. Water features—normally not allowed in the venue—were contained with Plexiglas. Evoke designed and planned the event.
The first course from Occasions Caterers was served on clear dishes with moss, flowers, and pine needles nestled in between the bowl and the plate, reinforcing the dining room's forest-like decor. The flatware resembled twigs.
The ballroom at Toronto's Liberty Grand Entertainment Complex was packed with a crowd of 2,500 guests for Special Olympics Canada's sold-out Motionball gala on February 6. For the event's 14th year, the planning committee decided on a “Glitz and Graffiti” theme. As guests entered into the Governors Ballroom, a red carpet and structures laden with strands of crystals formed a Hollywood-style entrance.
To mark the launch of a collaboration between Mindy Weiss and Wedding Paper Divas on a new collection, the well-known social event planner and the social stationer hosted an intimate, feminine luncheon at Los Angeles's new Lombardi House on February 25. At the event, guests could fill bags with a custom potpourri mix.
Just two days before the Academy Awards in February, fashion designer Tom Ford turned heads by hosting his fall 2015 women’s runway show in Los Angeles. While Ford sat his celebrity friends and media in the first two rows, which featured plush seating in gray velvet, clients and other industry invitees were given equally advantageous viewpoints thanks to a series of 18 "suites"—nine on each side—he had erected on an elevated platform. Entering through custom 12-foot-high walls, the private rooms featured gray velvet drape, gray carpet, and banquette-style seats and were each attended to by a model waitstaff who served preshow champagne.
Anheuser-Busch-owned beverage brand Shock Top launched its summer seasonal Lemon Shandy beverage on February 28 at a Ventura County lemon grove. The food was inspired by Shock Top Belgian White and Shock Top Lemon Shandy beverages, with locally sourced ingredients prepared by Clark Staub, executive chef and owner of Full of Life Flatbread restaurant in Los Alamos. For dessert, the crowd dined on blood orange popsicles with citrus zest and chocolate-covered candied kumquats and Shock Top Lemon Shandy whipped cream.
Fittingly, given that its show fell on Valentine's Day, Moncler Grenoble deemed its fashion week spectacle a "Love Factory." Moving the show out of Manhattan to the Duggal Greenhouse at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Villa Eugenie created a macroscopic tongue-in-cheek chocolate box from which models emerged in pairs as couples, kissing during the presentation—much to the audience's delight. Centering the show was a young bride and groom dressed in Moncler-meets-matrimony ensembles.
The 390 guests at Thakoon's fall show, held February 15 at Stage37, were greeted by what was described as "a physical manifestation of the Northern Lights." For the Dizon Inc.-produced outing, set designer Jonathon Beck used a new 3M material called Dichroic glass film that, when placed in specific angles, revealed a stunning reflection of the entire color spectrum of light. The abstract light refractions juxtaposed strikingly against an otherwise all-black venue, providing extra impact for the designer's collection.
