T-Shirts

As a surprising and humorous way to decorate the cavernous Park Avenue Armory's drill hall, the Jewish Museum and David Stark used more than 5,000 T-shirts to form walls and a ceiling. The custom tees were painted with tongue-in-cheek takes on classic slogans, like "Frankie Says Relax It's Purim" and "Got Spiel?" "We love the fact that the characters of Purim—Esther, Mordecai, Haman, and Ahasuerus—could somehow be re-contextualized as the Fab Four, and thinking of that iconic T-shirt in which the Beatles names were lain out in the Helvetica font, we immediately made the leap to lay out our Purim names in that same format. And then that led to the blur of other iconic T-shirt graphics mixed with references to Judaism and Purim—all with a big smirk," said Stark.

From a production perspective, the T-shirts were light enough to hang overhead, which lowered the Upper East Side venue's ceiling height and created a sense of intimacy in the space.

The T-shirts—in different colors and printed with a variety of phrases—also decorated the cocktail space, creating continuity in the design between the reception and dinner spaces. The furniture, bars, and decor were kept to a minimum in the cocktail area, allowing the eyes to be drawn upwards.

The T-shirts were even used to create a wall between the dinner area and cocktails; the colors and slogans provided the tactile and whimsical backdrop for the DJ booth where duo Andrew Andrew spun tunes for guests.

Staffers also matched the evening's design, sporting long-sleeved tees printed with "Esther, Mordecai, Ahasuerus & Haman," the names of the main characters in the story of Purim.