Outside the store, Redmoon performers dressed as stilt-walking horses in custom Hermès suits flown in from New York and fitted on site.
Performers from Redmoon donned horse masks and sang a short customized opera.
the corner of Rush and Oak Streets on a Thursday?” Turns out, the job involved getting permits from the city to erect no-parking signs outside the store early Thursday morning. A local farmer delivHermès opened its Chicago flagship ered the bales on a flatbed truck at 6 a.m. A team with opera-singing horses and of 14 assistants then unloaded the props, covered beribboned hay bales. their bands in Hermès ribbons, and doused them with a flame-retardant spray before arranging There are standards, and then there them on the curb. “At the end of the night, we had CHICAGO are Parisian standards. When proto do the whole process in reverse,” Valenti added. ducing the June 8 opening party for Hermès’s Valenti also had to overcome logistical Midwestern flagship store—a 6,000-square-foot hurdles to respect the venue’s aesthetic quality. space in the former Barneys building—planners “The store has exact, clean lines and a beautihad to adhere to the latter set of expectations. ful central staircase as its focal point,” he said. “The concepts for all of our events are conceived Because Redmoon performers were scheduled in Paris, from the Hermès events team there,” said to present a brief customized opera for guests, Bernice Kwok-Gabel, the New York-based “you need sound,” Valenti said. “So in the back of U.S. director of public relations for the French my mind, I was thinking ‘How on earth do I make luxury brand. speakers look good?’ I didn’t want to run cables Founded by a couple of brothers, Hermès or do anything that would muddle up that stairbegan in 1837 as a purveyor of saddles and harcase.” Ultimately, Valenti and Sound Investment nesses. “Everything that we do as a company employed a wireless speaker system. reflects our equestrian history and the fact that To further avoid congestion on the store’s we’re hands-on craftsmen,” said Kwok-Gabel. focal point, staffers stuck to one level. “There Indeed, the event was infused with strict attenwere upwards of 100 catering staffers,” Valenti tion to detail, starting with the costumes for the said, “and we treated the event as if it were two horse-head-wearing stilt-walkers different parties: one on the first Hermès Chicago Store who flanked the store’s entrance. floor and one on the second floor. Opening The performers wore Hermès suits We didn’t want to have waiters flown in from New York and custom Catering Calihan Catering, going up and down that beautiful Olivier Cheng Catering fitted by on-site seamstresses. staircase.” and Events Steven Valenti, owner of All The opening drew around 700 Entertainment Redmoon Things Party, provided on-theguests and “couldn’t have been Theater Event Management Skirt ground assistance for the New York more graciously received,” KwokPR and Parisian teams. “The creative Gabel said. “Usually, when it’s a PR The Experiential Agency concept absolutely came out of fashion event, people always have Chicago, XA Paris,” he confirmed. “My job was to something to say. But this time, Production All Things Party implement their vision. So, for me, it Sound Sound Investment we’ve received nothing but thankLtd. came down to questions like, how you notes. I’m sorry, but I find that Valet AF Parking do you get straw bales delivered to very unprecedented.” —Jenny Berg
New-York-based caterer Olivier Cheng prepared a buffet of French desserts atop All Thing Party’s custom bar.
Olivier Cheng also provided savory hors d’oeuvres such as foie-gras-pistachio truffles. Young equestrians assisted with the ribbon-cutting ceremony that kicked off the event, and then stuck around for dessert.
36 bizbash.com july/august 2010
PHOTOS: BARRY BRECHEISEN
Horse Sense