Past Events

A 12- by 8-foot chandelier draped with white, purple, lavender and pink ribbons and accented with white hydrangea hung from the ceiling of the tent at Lincoln Center of the Performing Arts' "Thank You, Beverly" spring benefit gala.

Matthew David decorated dinner tables with spring centerpieces of peonies, hydrangea, anemones, roses and lisianthus.

The dinner for 1,200 guests was held inside a tent atop Damrosch Park.

Stamford Tents provided a large tent with tempered glass walls on one side to give guests a view of Damrosch Park.

"We wanted to keep a unified design aesthetic," said KCD president and partner Julie Mannion, who oversaw the production of the awards. So from the invitation to the red carpet, a black-and-white color scheme, with a red accent, was devised to reinforce the signature color of the C.F.D.A. and what is an overarching color trend in the spring 2013 collections. The 90-foot-long step-and-repeat, designed by Laird & Partners, echoed the interior design with black molding and logos. The black carpet with white inlay, designed by KCD, measured 20 by 120 feet.

A new, standout decor piece during arrivals and cocktails was the Swarovski Crystal Palace Iris, a freestanding sculptural piece designed by the duo Fredrikson Stallard meant to be an interpretation of the human eye. The sculpture, which contained more than 600 hand-cut crystals, consisted of four separate pieces combining Swarovski crystal and different metal treatments, from gold leaf to Corten.

Also fashioned in black molding as part of the overall design aesthetic was corporate sponsor HP's installation that featured a specially developed app of the C.F.D.A. Awards journal on the computers. There was also a video loop of journal images shot by Peter Lindbergh on the screens.

To support C.F.D.A. president Diane von Furstenberg's desire for this year's awards to have a "one point of view" design ethos, a 35- by 19-foot projection screen displayed rotating black-and-white images taken at the historic Alder Manor in the Yonkers. Each room or space represented an honoree or category of nominees to keep with the night's narrative flow.

As guests entered the stage (like Nadja Swarovski, pictured), they emerged onto the custom-built 27- by 50-foot award stage from behind strategically placed doors meant to mimic the idea of looking into a room. Composed of 16 separate pieces (eight on the ceiling and four on each wall panel) spanning nearly 19,000 linear feet in total, the platform rested on a 1/2-inch-raised CNC-routed MDF floor painted with multiple coats of sealer.

A new Swarovski crystal lectern, composed of about 300 clear crystals (a mixture of rectangular and square) and created specially for the awards, served as a centerpiece onstage. The crystals were attached to acrylic panels to create a light and airy look, which allowed attention to be focused on award recipients like Oscar de la Renta, who accepted his Founder's Award from Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Matching the tone of the C.F.D.A. Awards journal photographer Peter Lindbergh, recognized for his black-and-white photography and elegant period setting of the award ceremony design, the cocktail hour in the atrium featured a unifying white decor peppered with black-and-white graphics. The pattern appeared on the pillows, conversation tables, and even the bars, which were marked with all-black molding inspired by the award set.