Tables for Tastemakers

I am so excited to announce our Tables for Tastemakers Event the weekend of October 22-24 at our Sotre South Market location, 711 O'Keefe.  We created this event during a conversation we were having with our Schumacher fabric representative who wanted to sponsor me for an event.  I realized how popular Schumacher's collaboration with Matouk has been for our store and I am so excited about the new Schumacher-Matouk table linens we ordered at market that I thought it would be a great idea to join forces! 

What better way to introduce my clients and Sotre's customers to the new collaboration than to have an event that showcases some of our favorite creative friends?   We asked four extremely talented people to join us in designing their own table using the new Matouk linens:  a floral designer, a consummate entertainer, a fashion savvy entrepreneur and our favorite catering company.  We cannot wait to unveil their tables but in the meantime, I thought I would review for inspiration a few of my own designs from Art in Bloom in NOLA and the Lenox Hill Gala in NYC.  Over the years I have been blessed to have so many talented co-workers and friends help me with these tables and I thought I would share some of my memories:

I remember being so honored and excited the first time I was asked to do a table for Lenox Hill.  This event, which takes place in NYC every spring, is where interior design meets floral design and some of the biggest and best talents are present or introduced for the first time.  I did this table with my mother, a genius with flowers, and her friend, Karen Smith.  These two lovely ladies flew with me to NYC and we worked on my friend's dining table before bringing everything to Cipriani's for the set up.  We deconstructed an umbrella and we strung orchids from fishing wire.

    

My first time at Art in Bloom in New Orleans, an event held at the New Orleans Museum of Art every Spring, my father had just died and my mother and I channeled our grief by setting up an elaborate pagoda made out of large antique windows, draping it with garlands.  Sadly I do not have those pictures but I do have a photo from the third Art in Bloom display.  We made Hydrangea soup!  Getting this display to the Museum was quite a production. We had my son with us and his only job was to hold the centerpiece which he let go of and the entire contents fell into the back of the car.  We had to resurrect the arrangement on the spot but it all worked out in the end :

 

The following year, I returned to Lenox Hill.  My husband had been shot and he was in need of continual and critical care. I was in a dark mood.  Through a mutual friend, we somehow got the talented and creative NYC floral designer Lewis Miller involved and he designed our beautiful dark and moody floral arrangement.  Ceramicist Karen Gundlach sculpted gorgeous orchid plates and helped me with the overall table design.  Julia B. table linens provided the gorgeous finishing touches.  This is one of my absolute favorite designs.

 

  

Karen and I did another table for Lenox Hill the following year.  Karen and I had gone to Paris for market and on the plane ride back, we came up with the idea of a centerpiece made from the feather Juju hats we had just selected for Spring.  Manual Canovas provided the gorgeous tribal-inspired fabric for the table cloth. I still use this table cloth at Christmas and it adds a new layer of meaning to our Holiday events.  We asked my design partner at the time (and still close friend) Lise Kuhn to help us and the rest is history! We made the NYC Sunday Styles front page this year!

 

   

I will never forget Lenox Hill 2018!  My husband was not well and I had a weird feeling he would not make it much longer but he was in and out of the hospital so much and always seemed to bounce back so back up to NYC I went.  I took Lise and Karen again and we created a "Go Fishing" tablescape in which we constructed floral fish out of mesh and wire.  It was a task and a half but we made it work.  I loved the floating candles in the hurricane vases - it felt very festive.

 

  

Sandy died a less than a month later! 

Earlier that same year, Lise a wiz at floral design, and I created this beautiful table design for Art in Bloom.  We wanted Madame de Pompadour to feel right at home if she could have popped in and we think we succeeded.  We loved the cushions made from daisies and carnations - you could never guess how many bunches of flowers we needed for those cushions!  My mother and I had once made a cake out of flowers and Lise and I re-created that same idea but with cupcakes which were all the rage back in 2018.

 

   

The last Lenox Hill before the Pandemic - 2019.  It was my birthday and my son and daughter tried their best to help me set up.  I think this design may have been a little over-reaching on my own but never-the-less I managed.  I loved the carnation bustier top with the ostrich feather skirt.  It all looked so beautiful until we got it up on the table and then it fell apart and came crashing down!  We had about 30 minutes to put it back together and fortunately we were able to succeed.  I think that's the night my 14 year-old walked into a night club like she was Drew Barrymore until we realized where we were.....but that is a tale for a different time.

 

 

I hope you all have enjoyed reading about these experiences and looking at all of the pics. Please join us October October 22-24 (12-6) at Sotre South Market, 711 O'Keefe Avenue.  There will be libations, small bites and give aways.  We would love to see you!  

For more information, please email us at sotrenola@gmail.com or call  (504)304-9475.

 

Until next time.....

xoxo,

Grace