Charities
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It’s Time To Celebrate!
Davide and Paolo SozziWelcome to the DIFFA Age
The Italian furniture atelier PROMEMORIA held its annual holiday parties in cities around the world this week including Paris, Moscow, London, Milan and New York. At the New York fete, in the company’s Upper East Side showroom at the Fine Arts Building, New York’s prominent interior designers, design editors and design-loving New Yorkers gathered with hosts Davide and Paolo Sozzi to celebrate the season take a chance in a “Wish-Raffle” to benefit Design Industries’ Foundation Fighting AIDS (DIFFA). Guests made a wish and a donation to the organization for a chance to win one of two tremendous prizes.Some of the wishes were general in nature, others were more specific to the AIDS cause, for which DIFFA has mobilized the immense resources of the design communities and granted over $40 million to hundreds of AIDS service organizations nationwide since its founding in 1984. Journalist and author Jorge Arango made this heartfelt wish “As someone who has lived with AIDS since 1993, it is my sincerest wish that the good works done by DIFFA will not be necessary in some near future, and that a cure will make the organization’s existence unnecessary.” David Sheppard, Executive Director of DIFFA National for more than 15 years, wished for generous benefactors: “What a difference it would make if more companies like Promemoria added ‘doing good’ to doing good business!”Raffle prizes were donated by generous sponsors and included The MoMA VIP Experience (featuring a private, after-hours tour of the museum and dinner for four at The MODERN restaurant, one of New York’s premiere dining experiences), and a deluxe Holiday Home Entertaining package (featuring 8 bottles of fine wine from LaCrema, 6 hand-blown Murano glass tumblers by Promemoria, and a $100 gift certificate to chef Mario Batali’s Eataly Market).
Arlene Angard, RioHamilton, VynaStPard
Michael Tavano, Barry Richards
Rock Axtman and Inson Wood
DIFFA Director Bill Murphy
Darrin Varden, Michael Tavano, LarryMartino
Dennis Scully and Michael Tavano
Fruit Display
James Rixner and Rio Hamilton
Jorge Arango, Vyna St Phard
Maggie Brown, Steven Williams
Michael Tavano, Arlene Angard, Vyna St Phard
Michael Tavano, Arlene Angard
Michael Tavano, Larry Martino
The three hour party was afloat in Italian wine and Prosecco, delicious hors d’oeuvres were copious and a huge buffet table laden with luscious fruits in della robbia style displays and several enormous Panettone, the traditional sweet breads that mark the holidays in Italy, and which hail from the north of the country, where Promemoria is headquartered and where they makes all of their fine furniture, lighting and gift items by hand.
Live jazz from the 45 Riots Quartet featuring Broadwaystar LaShonda Reese singing holiday and jazz favorites
Rock Axtman, Lizzy Schofield
The Panettone is the highlight of the event, and is flown in from Milan especially for the occasion by Promemoria, which has its entire staff tasting various versions of Panettone from Milan’s top bakeries and voting on the favorite months in advance of its worldwide celebrations.Photos courtesy PromemoriaAll Rights Reserved - Charities, Ice Theatre of New York, J McLaughlin, Nina Reeves, Out and About, Shopping, Vyna St Phard
There’s No Substitute for Grace
This past Tuesday evening, Ice Theatre of New York (ITNY), the nation’s premier ice dancing ensemble founded by Moira North, hosted a very festive Sip and Shop event with J McLaughlin at the women’s and men’s stores on East 72nd Street and Lexington Avenue. The store featured a mini-ice skating rink where one of Ice Theatre’s skaters Elisa Angeli performed throughout the evening as guests shopped for the upcoming holiday season.
Among the guests were Chairman of the Board of Directors Dr. Joan Erdheim and Martin Erdheim, Olympic Champion and long-time skating television analyst Dick Button, Diana Taylor, Lucy Curly-Brennan, Ice Theatre’s Artistic Director Douglas Webster, Executive Director Jirina Ribbens, Ritchie and Charlie Scribner, Martha and John Glass, Debbie Gordon, Vyna St. Phard, Molly Schaeffer, Felicia Taylor, Brooks Huston, Polly and Harrison Lyman, Virginia Budney, Courtney Gibson, David Zenker, Melanie Holland, Scott Salvator and Michael Zabriskie, Kim Erle and Nina Reeves.
Jirina Ribbens, Dick Button
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Robert Palomo, Elisa Angeli, Robert Bardin, Nina Reeves
Harrison Lyman
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Michael Zabriskie and Scott Salvator (with their adorable pet, Butch) Vyna St Phard (centered)
Diana Taylor, Jack Lynch
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Elisa AngeliPhotos courtesy Norbert SchrammAll rights reservedIce Theatre of New York, the nation’s premier ice dance ensemble, challenges conventional definitions of figure skating by creating works that integrate the sensibilities of contemporary dance, music and art. In addition to building and performing works of the highest artistic merit, ITNY reaches out to the next generation of skaters and audiences through its exemplary education, community outreach and training programs. ITNY was the first ice dance company to receive dance program funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. - Cappelini, Charities, Christopher Reeves Foundation, Events, Knoll, Life and Style, Savoir Beds, Social Unit, Textiles, Vyna St Phard
Dream for the Sky
Peter Wilderotter, and Dorothy CosonasSO LUXE!“This project is personal. My 24 year old daughter became paralyzed suddenly from a rare auto immune disease,” says Dorothy Cosonas. “The Reeve Foundation is a place that creates hope — like birds, that hope can rise to the sky.”The veteran brand, Knoll Luxe Textile, recently collaborated with Savoir Beds in order to benefit the Christopher Reeve Foundation. My friend C. Jean and I went to the event last week, and we were both impressed with what we saw. The event was spearheaded by Dorothy Cosonas from Luxe Textile; and the bed in question: Dream for the Sky is made of 100% linen with design elements in viscose and an accent of Swarovski crystals – the aesthetics were simply très jolie.
Savoir Beds is currently offering these custom designed headboards in five of my favorite patterns from Knoll: Arabella, Sandis, Mepal, Gates, and Garden City. 100% of the proceeds from the auction will benefit the Christopher Reeve Foundation, which is dedicated to curing spinal cord injury. Additionally, for one year, a percentage of the proceeds for the sale of the selected Savoir beds that are upholstered with the above-mentioned fabrics from Knoll Luxe, will also go to the Foundation.
Custom Savoir Bed upholstered with a Knoll Luxe Linen FabricThe ‘Dream for the Sky‘ bed is being auctioned by CharityBuzz.com for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation 100% of the proceeds will go towards the foundationPhoto credit: Knoll TextilesCAPPELLINI
That same evening, a few blocks down, in the same artsy neighborhood of Soho, the folks at Cappellini were celebrating a project which involved a couple of cool designers from Amsterdam…
Social-Unit: The plastic bed is made from consumer waste plastic in Amsterdam’s sheltered workshops
The evening was fueled with some pretty acrobatic entertainment
The Social-Unit Team and Designers (Far left: Wouter and Corinne – far right)
Checking out the goods: Left: Yours truly. Right: Christ Jean-PallingPhoto courtesy Social-UnitThe Social-Unit is a luxurious residential bed, complete with ample storage, a vanity table, a desk and electrical outlets and lighting. It is specifically crafted to create a cozy ‘sheltered island’ space, in the middle of a large open plan living area. This sustainable bed is from a project that was part of a larger initiative – One Hundred Days – an international art competition launched by Contaminate NYC back in 2011. Contaminate is a social and cultural platform for art immerse experiences and – given its social entrepreneurial roots – decided to challenge artists to produce projects combining art and sustainability issues. Wouter and Corinne’s Social-Unit is the third and final show of the series dedicated to the winners of One Hundred Days. The Social Unit is available at t the Cappellini Showroom in Soho.
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