Event Ideas

To celebrate the opening of its Stateside store, Moods of Norway hosted a "Really, Really Blond Party" for Fashion's Night Out 2012 in New York, at which all attendees were given blond wigs in order to achieve the classic Norwegian look.

In November, the first Electric Run was held in Costa Mesa, California. The trippy nighttime 5K saw more than 10,000 participants dressed in glow-in-dark costumes. The entrance fee included a custom-designed T-shirt, an LED bracelet, a glow necklace, and glowing sunglasses. Racers were also encouraged to adorn themselves with glow sticks, LED-lit clothes, and neon colors.

This year's ArtEdge gala in Chicago was held in the Museum of Contemporary Art's warehouse, with an appropriately gritty factory vibe. To match the event's industrial feel, the co-chairs draped guests with caution tape as they arrived on the scene.

At its 2006 benefit in New York, performance art organization Performa integrated partygoers directly into the design scheme by asking them to dress in white and then video projections to turned the guests into human movie screens. For guests who didn’t arrive in white, the organization put together a group called the Emergency Sewing Project to craft white clothes; the team of sewers was intended as both a service and a performance piece.

Performa’s most recent gala in December also incorporated attendees into the event's surrealist theme: Invitations instructed guests to wear black and white haute couture. On site, there was a station where the event’s 500 attendees could further accessorize with headpieces formed with mannequin heads and other costumes from designer Lika Volkova.

Liquor brand Absolut hosted its edgy, art-driven Absolut X Masquerade Ball in Chicago in November, where guests were invited to wear black-and-silver hand-painted masks, as well as transform themselves at makeover stations.

The Color Run 5K toured to 53 cities in 2012, with more than 600,000 participants willing to douse themselves in bright hues. The runners were asked to wear white shirts, and when they reached the designated color zones dotting the course, volunteers and staffers doused them with colorful powder. "I wanted to add something ... that could serve as a sort of visual reward for all the hard work these runners put into training for the event," said founder Travis Snyder.

Started more than 25 years ago in Paris, Dîner en Blanc is an impromptu picnic now held in dozens of public spaces throughout the world each year. Event organizers ask guests to dress in all-white clothing and bring a list of items, including white plastic folding chairs and tables, white tablecloths and napkins, and white dinnerware.

UrbanDaddy's "white room" event in November—an affair created in partnership with Stoli to promote the vodka brand's new campaign and flavors—instructed its 350 attendees to dress in all-white attire to match the all-white decor in the venue. As the night progressed, guests splattered the walls and their clothes (protected by white lab coats supplied by organizers) with colorful paint.

The vision of artist Marina Abramović dictated the look and feel at MoCA’s 2011 gala. The event's 750 guests were asked to change into matching white lab coats as they entered the space, an experiment that was designed to allow everyone to participate in the evening on an equal playing field. "You had all these people in expensive outfits, but they put on the lab coats and that was that,” said event producer Carleen Cappelletti. "It took away the hierarchy you feel at an event."

Produced by Caravents, Playboy’s recent Super Bowl party had a Mardi Gras theme and decor elements meant to invoke an authentic New Orleans feel. To go along with the themed decor, guests could select a colorful masquerade mask to wear as they entered the party.

Back in 2005, the Whitney’s fall gala incorporated blue neon centerpieces created by artist Richard Tuttle. Accordingly, invitations specified that guests dress in the Pantone Matching System color blue 630 to correspond with the significant color displayed in Tuttle’s art. Guests including Chloë Sevigny, Evelyn Lauder, and Peggy Siegal complied.