parties

(Photos: Sara Scamarcia)

Remember the quintet of artist- and architect-designed covers of T: The New York Times Style Magazine in celebration of its fifth anniversary? Architect and exhibition designer Ico Migliore transformed the five special T logos—created by Frank Gehry, Jenny Holzer, Jeff Koons, Doug and Mike Starn, and Francesco Vezzoli—into giant playing cards for a T party at the Bulgari Hotel in Milan during the city's fashion week. The evening was hosted by Janet L. Robinson, president and CEO of The New York Times Company; T magazine editor Stefano Tonchi, and Vezzoli, whose own T (at left) riffs on Man Ray's iconic "Tears" photo. Guests such as Tomas Maier, Frida Giannini, Neil Barrett, and Giambattisa Valli tried not to interpret the giant houses of cards as a metaphor for the media industry. Click "continued..." for an overhead shot that smacks of Alice in Wonderland—if Wonderland was full of gentlemen in expertly tailored suits.

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Usually, we at UnBeige devote September 10th to celebrating the birthday of Georges Bataille (he would be 112 this year), but this year we'll dispense with the eye-shaped gâteau to take part in Fashion's Night Out, a Vogue-sponsored global initiative "to promote retail, restore consumer confidence, and celebrate fashion." Surely Bataille, who had much to say about consumption and festivals, would have approved.

"It was an idea that was generated during the [fall] Paris collections in response to the tidal wave of negativity and uncertainty that Anna Wintour perceived among people in the industry and among her colleagues in retail," explains Sally Singer, Vogue's director of fashion news and features. "She called a meeting of all the major editors of Vogue—for all the major editions of Vogue around the world, of which there are about a dozen—and said, 'Let's get people out and about, and if not shopping, then at least enjoying the pleasure of stores.'"

Stateside, the Fashion's Night Out fun will also usher in Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, which will pause the opening-day Bryant Park action to allow for celebrations at stores throughout the city. The list of participating designers and retailers is vast, but among the events we're most looking forward to is the bash at Barneys, where Simon Doonan and his team have lined up events including a book signing with Ruben and Isabel Toledo, trunk shows from Barbara Tfank and Zero + Maria Cornejo, and appearances by Narciso Rodriguez, Thom Browne, and Jonathan Adler, who Doonan promises will actually be throwing pots in the store (live-action potting!). A few blocks away, Assouline is keeping its sublime bookstore at the Plaza open late, serving champagne, The American Fashion Cookbook, and a scavenger hunt based around the tasty tome. Down in Soho, Michael Kors has recruited Billy Norwich to draw caricatures of guests, while famed photographer Arthur Elgort will be snapping away at the Dior flagship on Fifth Avenue. Smile and say "Galliano!"

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Fresh from their collaboration with author Neil Gaiman at Comic-Con, the gothic fragrance mavens at Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab are gearing up for their next ghoulish meeting of the minds. On the afternoon of August 23, Black Phoenix teams with illustrator Gris Grimley for a party at Dark Delicacies in Burbank to celebrate the launch of Tales of Death and Dementia (Atheneum), a new book that matches the spine-tingling tales of Edgar Allen Poe (in this, his 200th anniversary year) with Grimley's darkly whimsical drawings. Original artwork from the book will be on display and for sale, along with silkscreened event posters and t-shirts. Partygoers will also be treated to the debut of Black Phoenix's new line of scents inspired by Grimly's illustrations of Poe's prose. The four fragrances are under wraps for now, but we're hoping that "The Telltale Heart" has inspired a chilling chypre.

As if proximity to Rhode Island School of Design president John Maeda wasn't reason enough to visit Providence, RISD has announced who will receive honorary degrees at its 2009 commencement on Saturday, May 30. This year's crop of "exceptional individuals who have made groundbreaking contributions to the world of art and design" are entrepreneur/Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake, Apple designer Jonathan Ive, former RISD president Roger Mandle, writer and creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson, and sculptor Betty Woodman. Held outdoors, RISD's always festive commencement ceremony is open to the public, which means that anyone is welcome to soak up Robinson's commencement address and admire the graduates' unique twist on traditional caps, gowns, pomp, and circumstance. It's also customary for the honorary degree recipients to give a speech, and who knows, Ive just might shower the crowd in free iPod nanos. (Hey, with Maeda presiding, anything can happen.)

Planning to attend the UnBeige/D-Crit party this Wednesday evening? Listen up! To best accommodate the overwhelming response to our party announcement of last week, the mediabistro event wizards have just arranged to move the bash several blocks north from Highbar to Amalia, the 8,000-square-foot restaurant and lounge located at 204 West 55th Street. And really, what better venue than one with "old world baroque elements" (Chinoiserie! Black Murano glass chandeliers! Backlit mosaic tile! Just close your eyes and pretend that Marcel Wanders is involved) to appreciate the clean-lined ingenuity of American design?

From 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on the ides of April, UnBeige and D-Crit (the new MFA program in Design Criticism at the School of Visual Arts) will celebrate the publication of American Design by Russell Flinchum, design historian extraordinaire. Part of the Museum of Modern Art Design series, the book traces the development of American design from the work of early American machinists through mid-century "design for modern living" to the branded, consumer-oriented design of the present day. Care to join us? RSVP here. We promise book signing, drink specials, and complimentary hors d'oeuvres shaped like Bertoia chairs (or at least they will appear to be after a few drink specials!).

The ides of April isn't just for income taxes anymore. We cordially invite you to ditch that mound of receipts labelled "Misc," file an extension, and join us at Highbar in Manhattan for a celebration of American design, by which we mean both design that is American and a new book on the subject. UnBeige and D-Crit (the new MFA program in Design Criticism at the School of Visual Arts) are hosting a party next Wednesday evening to celebrate the publication of American Design by Russell Flinchum, design historian extraordinaire. The book, part of the Museum of Modern Art Design series, traces the development of American design from the work of early American machinists through mid-century "design for modern living" to the branded, consumer-oriented design of the present day. Care to join us? RSVP here. We promise book signing, drink specials, and complimentary hors d'oeuvres shaped like Bertoia chairs (or at least they will appear as such after a few drink specials!).

(Photos, left to right: The Carlton on Madison Avenue, Michael Weschler)

On the wrong coast (or lacking the requisite Academy Award nomination) to make it inside the Stephen Shadley-designed Architectural Digest green room? Why not spend Oscar night with David Rockwell, who designed the sets for Sunday's gala awards show? Or at least in a hotel suite he designed. The Rockwell-designed Carlton on Madison Avenue is offering UnBeige readers a special Oscar night rate of $199, which includes "gourmet popcorn" from the hotel's in-house haute barnyard restaurant, Country. And you'll be in good company: we hear that Cindy Allen, the delightful editor-in-chief of Interior Design magazine, is hosting a private Academy Awards viewing party in Country's Rockwell-designed "Champagne Lounge," where guests such as set designer Stefan Beckman, interior designer Vicente Wolf, and fashion designer-cum-architecture buffs Angel Sanchez and Yeohlee Tang will be eating up Rockwell's sets on screen while snacking on the aforementioned popcorn, taleggio grilled cheese diamonds, and coconut truffle lollipops. To reserve a room for Oscar night at the specially designed rate, contact the Carlton at 800-601-8500.

One hundred years ago next Friday, F. T. Marinetti and his speed-loving Italian chums stood "on the world's summit" to "launch once again [their] insolent challenge to the stars!" That is, they published "The Futurist Manifesto" on the front page of Le Figaro, kicking off the avant-garde movement to the bedfuddlement of the "gangrene of professors, archaeologists, tour guides, and antiquaries" that they so despised. The Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles isn't about to let this milestone anniversary pass without the quirky celebration it deserves.

On Friday, February 20, Otis will host "Futurism + 100," an evening of music, poetry readings, short films, and art. Attendees, who are advised to wear Futurist attire (i.e., red, black, or white), can sip Futurist cocktails ("Polibibita" Negronis) while listening to readings of parolibere poems and newly translated Marinetti writings. A Futurist DJ set will feature the remixed music and voices of the movement's principal figures, while a screening of the short film Amor Pedestre promises a love story told by focusing solely on the characters' feet. Once you're good and punchy, catch the premiere of "1080 Punch-ups," an interactive video installation by Alessandro Marianantoni and Gianluca Rizzo, projected on the "punch-card" facade of the Otis campus main building (constructed in 1962 for IBM's West Coast headquarters).

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Jack Frost is already nipping at our nose (at least in New York City), but in these dark economic times, who can splurge on chestnuts, much less an open fire on which to roast them? As news of cancelled holiday parties continues to trickle in, the mediabistro.com mothership wants to know who will be singing yuletide carols and/or dressing up like eskimos this season, and so the hunt is on for The Media Parties That Will Go On, Come Hell or High Water.

If your company is still planning a holiday party, tell mediabistro.com here. Fill in the short form, and don't be stingy on the details. (Will there be open bar? Homemade cookies? Top shelf alcohol or just beer, wine, and pretzels?) The assumption will be that your holiday party is closed to non-company attendees, so when asked for info that does not apply (i.e., "How to RSVP") just write "N/A" in those fields. Then, in a week or so, the mediabistro.com elves will compile the entire list and present it for all to view in the new events newsletter, The Press List.

♦ Spread some cheer and submit your holiday party ♦

Photos: UnBeige

It was a dark and stormy Wednesday night in Manhattan, but those who made it to the doors of Element, a 19th-century bank turned 21st-century nightclub, needed only to utter the not-so-secret password ("Design Observer") to be welcomed into the whirl of designers, drinks, music, and residual election glee that was the eminent design blog's fifth anniversary party. Editors Michael Bierut, William Drenttel, and Jessica Helfand were on hand, with Helfand signing copies of her exquisite new book, Scrapbooks: An American History (Yale University Press), which made us want to go straight home and collage. Meanwhile, Bierut looked poised for service in a novel cabinet post (Interior gets its own Department, why not design?) in a dapper orange tie, an Obama-themed "Mission Accomplished" badge, and a non-partisan USA lapel pin of his own design. We told him about all the positive feedback we had heard about the Men's Vogue-commissioned pin's slightly subversive flair, and he confessed to having had a bit of designer's remorse (read: endearing modesty). "I sent them three designs and then was about to go back and say, 'Forget the third one,'" he told us. "And of course, that's the one they picked."

Speaking of selection processes, Drenttel helped us to understand how the Zon Hearing Aid could possibly have bested Design Observer in the competition for this year's People's Design Award, which is decided not by an esteemed jury of design stars but by online voting. Blame it on Facebook. After several failed attempts to send a last-minute e-mail about DO's front-runner status for the award, Drenttel gave up, only to have the e-mail arrive in the inboxes of all approximately 1,500 members of DO's Facebook group—in quadruplicate and on the day after voting had closed. When hundreds of members abandoned the DO group in frustration and/or complained about the (accidental) e-mail barrage, Drenttel went about sending notes of apology to each person who contacted him. The result? "Facebook suspended my account," he said. "They thought I was spamming. I couldn't access my account for three days." There's always next year.