For guests at the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s (CFDA) awards, few things are more important than watching what other people are wearing. This year, event sponsor Swarovski accommodated the red carpet curiosity with a crystal-encrusted screen inside the New York Public Library's Astor Hall that displayed a live telecast of the arrivals outside.
The crystal house worked with Dutch design firm Studio Job to create the 12- by 15-foot, 750-pound screen. Framed with gold leaf aluminum charms and more than 200,000 Swarovski crystals, it looked like an elaborate mirror. As the decorative centerpiece for the cocktail hour, the screen was flanked by four giant lampshades on the library’s existing four candelabras, featuring more charms with gold and topaz crystals. A yellow and white checkered carpet that covered Astor Hall's marble floors complemented the canary yellow lighting inside the space.
Light cement-colored carpet and a yellow CFDA-logoed backdrop filled the arrivals area, which was tented, thankfully, because a violent thunderstorm commenced just before start time. Early arrivals could watch Carolina Herrera, Eva Mendes, Mandy Moore, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Liev Schreiber, Sean Combs, and Anderson Cooper arrive via the mirror.
After an hour of cocktails and mingling, trumpets sounded and guests were ushered downstairs to the Celeste Bartos Forum for dinner and the presentation. Last year, guests went from Astor Hall for cocktails to the Gottesman Exhibition Hall for dinner to the forum for the awards—this year, dinner and the awards program were combined. Also noticeable was the absence of live entertainment. American Idol Fantasia Barrino performed last year; this year there was just music from Tony Okungbowa, the DJ from Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show.
CFDA special events director Tina Sibulkin hired KCD to produce the event, and the firm gave the Celeste Bartos Forum a modern supper club feel. Studio Job decorated tables with 50 limited-edition crystal lamps, and everything, from the custom plexiglass tables, to rose centerpieces, to the water goblets, to the toile fabric that graced seat cushions, was in varying shades of red.
The overall feeling of the room was sexy, but still warm and flattering. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t a hitch or two: halfway through one of the presentations, a row of red LED lights, tucked into the side of one of the banquet tables, fell off, one light at a time.
According to KCD's Billy Daley, there were no "power tables" placed at the front of the room for V.I.P.s like Kate Moss, Ralph Lauren, Coach's Reed Krakoff, and Anna Wintour. Instead, he said, tables were evenly spread out, dispersing “the energy all around the room” while encouraging guests to mingle without interrupting those around them. KCD also erected elevated platforms to help everyone see the award presentation from their tables.
Awards were doled out while guests dined on Hank Tomashevski's three-course dinner of roasted beet and mache salad with blue cheese and walnuts; steak au poivre with vegetables, French fries and crisp souffled potatoes with tartare mayonnaise; and a pavlova with fresh berry coulis and mascarpone cream. Winners included Vera Wang, John Varvatos, and Marc Jacobs.
Those who didn't walk away with an award at least had something to sell on eBay. The evening’s invitations arrived with a grape cluster-shaped crystal paperweight, designed by Swarovski's Solange Azagury-Partridge. Murray Moss was so impressed by the paperweights, he planned to sell them at his SoHo store the following week.
—Jim Shi
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