For some people, going below 57th Street is a big deal—unless there’s a great reason, which there was last night, for ELLE Decor’s A-List party at SoHo’s The Manner hotel.
And then there are other people, who think nothing of taking a round-trip flight across the Atlantic just to see their friends. That would be A-List designer David Netto, who came straight from London via JFK and then headed directly back to JFK after collecting kudos for his cover story on this month’s issue of the magazine.
“We are here to celebrate all of you,” said ELLE Decor’s editorial and brand director Stellene Volandes, in her remarks to designers including Jeremiah Brent and Nate Berkus, Ellie Cullman, Sheila Bridges, Richard Mishaan, Michelle R. Smith, Nicholas Obeid, and Poonam Khana. “This is for you and about you.”
ELLE Decor’s head of editorial content, Elisa Lipsky-Karasz, and editorial and brand director, Stellene Volandes.
The Manner hotel’s designer, Hannes Peer, also on the A-List, had traveled as far as Netto, albeit on a more leisurely schedule. He was in from Milan and got to see the space he had designed packed with industry peers and seemingly endless champagne and caviar. “They really let me go wild,” said Peer of his richly hued, lush design, which was echoed in the floral arrangements in oxblood, cream, burnt orange and evergreen from Winston Flowers. “Our aim was to create visual movement through color repetition, interesting textures, and organic shapes,” using tuberose, butterfly ranunculus, clematis, and accents of smokebush, said Winston Flowers designer Jillian Elliott.
Meanwhile Billy Cotton, Augusta Hoffman and Rafael de Cardenas mingled by the bar, with Apparatus’s Tara Carroll and Astraeus Clarke’s Chelsie Starley. Other guests scored ELLE Decor baseball hats, only available to those on the A-List itself or guests of the magazine. Studio Mellone’s Andre Mellone and Kevin Baker hugged friends, while Vicente Wolf and Victoria Hagan each held court in the corner.
“ELLE Decor is really the designer’s magazine,” said one guest, surveying the room. Truer words have never been spoken. —Elisa Lipsky-Karasz
