Crazy Fun

Set inside Openhouse's gallery-like space, UrbanDaddy and Stoli's "white room" event put 350 guests in a white-on-white setting. To match the decor, Stoli models wore white and, in a nod to the vodka brand's logo, their look included red body paint and make up.

Playful decorative elements included a tub filled with white ping-pong balls as well as the goggles that guests could wear while painting.

The event provided guests with paintbrushes and paint; the tools were scattered around the space on tabletops and other surfaces.

The invitation instructed guests to wear all white, with the note that "protective gear" would be provided. At the event, guests could don white coats to prevent paint from splashing on their outfits.

A red phone booth flown in from Canada was converted into a white photo booth that guests could decorate with paint. Inside, a digital camera taped to the wall and painted with the words "Press Me" invited guests to snap pics of themselves. The photos were sent to a laptop onsite and could later be viewed on UrbanDaddy's Web site.

Guests could paint their doodles inside framed canvases on the wall.

UrbanDaddy installed an 8-foot-tall replica of a Stoli bottle at the entrance and used it as a surface for colorful projections.

To add to the all-white theme of the night, Food in Motion served an all-white menu that included halibut ceviche.

To launch Stoli's new line of "Most Original" vodka, the bar served cocktails made with the Salted Karamel, Chocolat Razberi, and Chocolat Kokonut flavors.

Guests created their own artwork at the spin-art booth where they dropped small amounts of paint onto a spinning paper.

As the night progressed, splashes of color were introduced through projections on an installation of umbrellas.

The night's live entertainment also included some interactive art, with the band Cherub performing while artists painted the black backdrop with white, glittery paint.

On the stage's backdrop, colored projections added points of color, shapes that grew as the performance drew to an end.

To match the decor toward the end of the event, servers passed brightly colored desserts, including red velvet cupcakes topped with multicolored icing.

In July at Travel & Leisure’s annual World’s Best Awards in New York, sponsor Patrón displayed a sleek wall that housed five tanks of Patrón-based cocktails from which guests could pour their own drinks.

The Los Angeles launch party for Zing vodka in July had a unique take on a shot bar: Gloved hands emerged from a rose-covered wall to offer guests glasses of the new spirit.

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.

The candy shop was brightly lit and filled with Ernst & Young's colours, yellow and white. There were four candy stations that had fudge, yellow cotton candy, a self-serve candy bar with branded plastic bags, and white-iced cookies and cupcakes.