Fun Stuff

Louis Vuitton took over an entire section of Saks Fifth Avenue when it launched its women's concept store inside the department store in 2009. As a way to fully brand the space, the luxury French fashion house and event designer David Beahm crafted an elaborate forest, which included a leaf-covered gate.

The June 25 American Academy of Hospitality Sciences' Five Star Diamond Awards ceremony took on A Midsummer Night's Dream theme, which saw Benny Ofer of Daniel Events design an enchanted garden with flower-covered stands and hanging grapevines inside the Addison in Boca Raton, Florida.

Inspired by Shaker culture, Fleurs Bella filled a raw New York space with tools, objects made from organic materials, aromatic plants, wooden doors, baskets, and other paraphernalia for the Brooklyn Academy of Music's 2007 Next Wave gala. One hallway was lined with willow and maple trees.

Designed to resemble an overgrown—but elegant—Italian garden, Bulgari's intimate dinner for the launch of its Mon Jasmin Noir scent in 2011 had sounds of chirping birds, a cocoon-like grove of greenery, and smells of lemon, jasmine, and lily of the valley. Gold candelabra wrapped in vines, lush arrangements of white and green flowers in Italian terra-cotta compotes, sprigs of jasmine, and Meyer lemons on the branch formed the centerpieces on the long communal dining table.

With the tagline, "Where the grass is greener," the March 2013 gala dinner and auction for the Georgiana Bruce Kirby Preparatory School had a garden theme. Rather than using live plants, Peggy Young & Associates covered the Santa Cruz, California, school with artificial turf, including the dining tables and the auction display where guests searched for items amidst the faux grass.

During September Fashion Week in 2011, Alice & Olivia turned a raw studio into a whimsical garden for the showing of its latest collection. Grassy flooring, white lawn furniture, and trees hung with accessories set the scene.

Creating a garden within a garden for the Chicago Botanic Garden's Summer Dinner Dance on June 21, HMR Designs hung birdcage chandeliers strung with white lilies and covered poles with trellises in the dinner tent. Banners decorated with botanical prints of flowers added to the look.

When, in 2010, Bell Canada marked its first year in a five-year funding commitment to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the telecommunication company's gala was designed as a journey through lush English gardens. This included surrounding an ice sculpture with bear- and deer-shaped topiaries in the reception space at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Tables with umbrellas, an enormous photo backdrop, and warm projections turned one section of Microsoft's press preview into an outdoor café. The decor for the event during Internet Week in New York also included a few potted trees and mini buckets of sunflowers.

Channeling English gardens as a nod to the "AngloMania" exhibition, the 2006 gala for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute placed tables in mini garden plots, dividing the museum's Englehard Court using espalier apple trees surrounded by blooming bulbs of daffodils, hyacinths, and ferns. Moreover, grass covered the floors, 30-foot-tall spirals of wisteria vine wrapped columns, and the dining tables were bare willow wood.

Dubbed Fleurotica, the Garfield Park Conservatory's June 12 fund-raiser was all things horticultural, including a fashion show where garments were made entirely out of plants, flowers, and ferns. At the Chicago event, brass beds with mossy, flower-covered spreads provided lounge furniture—and opportunities to snap shots—for guests.

It may have been warm outside when Absolut introduced its Orient Apple vodka flavor in 2011, but that didn't stop the brand from turning an indoor gallery into an apple orchard. The New York launch event involved 7,000 square feet of sod, live trees, and barrels of apples, as well as picnic rugs and tree stumps.

After hosting the reception on the elevated park, the Friends of the High Line took the dinner portion of its 2010 summer benefit in New York inside the Phillips de Pury & Company gallery. The decor from Van Wyck & Van Wyck was designed to give the various rooms of the gallery a continuous look reminiscent of the High Line and included a 600-foot-long strip of foliage suspended overhead.

To create a lush, cocoon-like setting for the seating at the 2012 Two by Two for AIDS and Art gala and auction in Dallas, Todd Fiscus covered a banquette wall in boxwood-print slipcovers and topped it off with heather and hydrangeas.

To create a forest scene to display Louis Vuitton's collection at its Saks Fifth Avenue concept store launch, David Beahm used five kinds of mosses, built life-size trees using branches wound around metal frames, and decorated the area with other leafy plants.

Mimicking the scenery found at summer camps, Groupon's camp-inspired "urban adventure" in July 2012 put bundled logs, boat paddles, and plenty of foliage inside the Swissôtel Chicago.

A parklike scene with swings, croquet, trees, benches, lampposts, and grass formed the casual vignette at a New York gallery for Google's November 2010 launch of Boutiques.com.

Target remodeled a New York gallery space into a Parisian street scene for the press preview of its Jason Wu collection in January 2012. At the center of the space was the town square, which included an enormous, fountain-like floral arrangement. Elsewhere, black-and-white decals, lampposts, and trees added to the outdoor look.

The "Enchanted Forest of Curiosities" pop-up from Hendrick's Gin in December 2011 put moss-covered woodland creatures, fabric-draped trees, tree-stump stools, glitter-specked dirt, and fake snow in a vacant Brooklyn storefront.

As part of the immersive setting for the 2012 BIO International Convention's welcome reception in Boston, Chicago-based company Kehoe Designs created a Japanese garden inspired by the country's shogun era.

During Fashion Week in New York in February 2012, Tommy Hilfiger fashioned an elaborate set that resembled a gated garden. The showing of the designer's men’s and women's collections at the Park Avenue Armory saw attendees seated at café tables, chairs, and benches, and a brick runway bordered with gravel and artificial maple trees.

At a press preview in December 2011, Sears and Kmart created a garden setting indoors, avoiding New York's rainy end-of-year weather. The look included live canaries, a working fountain, kites, park benches, trees, and a picnic table.

Chanel took its Numéros Privés exhibition to Las Vegas in January 2012. As part of the installation, the French brand turned the promenade at the Wynn Las Vegas into a private garden, using camellia trees to surround vitrines of flowers and jewelry.

In 2005, Avon created an indoor park to preview its Mark line of cosmetics. A wrought-iron gate opened to four vignettes, which included a small faux maple tree with orange and red foliage and teardrop-shaped glass candleholders suspended from the branches, red umbrellas hovering over a wooden park bench and moss-covered pedestals, and warm yellow lighting.

Held at an industrial site on the Hudson River, the Whitney Museum of American Art's 2011 fall gala projected warmth and intimacy through the use of live maple trees, thousands of daisies, and candlelight.

Open to the public, a four-story Ferris wheel marked Rodeo Drive's Fashion's Night Out efforts. The block party saw the participation of more than 80 stores in the famous shopping district, as well as a life-size trivia game played by Vogue West Coast editor Lisa Love and others.

The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis' kickoff for its Great Sports Legends Dinner coincided with Fashion's Night Out this year. The nonprofit organization closed down the Bal Harbour Shops in Miami for a 500-person event. The biggest component was the three boccie ball courts produced by Barton G., where guests could play for free or pay $10 to compete to win prizes from Tiffany & Company.

Model Chanel Iman hosted the daytime ribbon-cutting ceremony. Block party attendants were dressed in matching uniforms, complete with fedoras, white linen tops, neon orange shorts, and metallic gladiator sandals.

Family-friendly games included corn hole, bocce ball, ping pong, hopscotch, and a chalk-coloring area.

Adults and celebrities played chess with life-size pieces.

A pop-a-shot basketball game was another popular activity.

The party's logo was displayed throughout the venue.

Guests had views from 11 11 Lincoln Road that overlooked the entire city.

Karmin performed at the Sunglass Hut Summer Block Party Miami.

The event's centerpiece was a fence wall that spelled out the brand's name using Solo cups. The installation was meant to evoke a backyard or block-party feel.