Invitations

In a no-expense-spared bash for the 2010 opening of its New Bond Street London flagship, Louis Vuitton created unique, numbered V.I.P. invitations that incorporated multiple elements of its travel legacy. Information about each component of the party was featured on a distinct card stock or vachetta leather piece; the final piece was a python card case bearing after-party details. The entire invite was fastened together with a leather tie and gold key—a nod to the French fashion house's luggage-making roots.

For the fall 2008 shows at London Fashion Week, fashion designer Gareth Pugh created a latex rose corsage as the invitation to the British Fashion Council's Moët & Chandon Boudoir V.I.P. room. The pieces were packaged in a Moët & Chandon box and messengered to guests.

Chopard celebrated its 150th anniversary with an extravagant dinner and party at the Frick Collection in 2010. The Swiss watchmaker and jeweler enlisted New York-based Erin Bazos of Art Direction & Design to create a formal hardcover invitation utilizing a custom "Animal World" logo developed for all the jeweler’s anniversary events. The cover illustration, executed in gold foil stamping, was hand drawn and complemented by a watercolor painting created for the inside of the invite.

For Bloomberg's White House Correspondents' Dinner after-party in 2008, guests were sent a device that would only reveal the party information when recipients scanned their fingerprints. As an added element of security, each credit card-size piece only responded to the fingerprint of the intended invitee.