Fashionable Fete
Artful Dallas party celebrates fusion of fashion and home design
What: Launch of "1920/2020" art and design installation by Ken Downing
Where: Arteriors flagship showroom
The 411: Neiman Marcus fashion director Ken Downing, Arteriors founder Mark Moussa, and president Steve Davis were joined by about 200 fashion and design aficionados — including BagSnob founder Tina Craig, socialite Heidi Dillon, model Chandra North, and former Neiman Marcus CEO Karen Katz — for an opening-night toast to Downing's curated pop-up installation at the Dallas Design District showroom.
Proximo provided wine, bubbles, and spirits, including a signature cocktail, the French 75, Downing's cocktail of choice. Guests enjoyed passed canapes such as miniature tacos, and cheeseburgers, while DJ Blake Ward spun an upbeat playlist.
But the guests were all there to see Downing's immersive display. "1920/2020," which fuses fashion and interior design, uses nearly 80 beautiful items to bring to life a theme of the 1920s merged with his interpretation of the 2020s.
“My design concept melds themes of Art Deco, the glamorous 1920s movement that rejected the sterile modernism of the Machine Age, with a vision of a future that departs from the minimalism of today to embrace human interaction and a rebellious, bohemian spirit,” Downing says in a release.
The exhibition is part of Arteriors' Designer Interpretations program, which asks international tastemakers to create curated spaces in showrooms around the world. Downing is the first to create a vignette for the Dallas flagship space, with more to come. His design launched March 22 and will be on display for a month.
The program, which kicked off last fall with designer Shawn Henderson’s vignette in the Arteriors New York Design Center showroom, will continue with additional talents in showrooms in Los Angeles, New York, and London.
Who: Juliette Moussa, Alan Katz, Lauren Luter Bryant, Colby McWilliams, Jim Sheehan, Robert and Meaders Ozarow, Erin Mathews, and Russ Davis.