SEPHORA HOLIDAY MEDIA PREVIEW 2024

Dec 20

If you’ve been following us for some time, you’ll know that it’s been our pleasure to design and produce the annual Sephora Holiday Media Preview for our friends at Middle Child PR. The ask this year was extremely inspiring and we were able to fully embrace the dark, moody, artsy winter holiday of our dreams. Set at the West Queen West restaurant And/Ore which houses an already alluring and mysterious ambience, it was our job to take the vision that Sephora sought to express for 2024’s Media Preview, and translate it to the real world while complimenting and aligning with the restaurant’s already distinct aesthetic.

THE DARK AND MOODY HOLIDAY OF OUR DREAMS

Needless to say, we didn’t go with a traditional holiday palette this year. Drawing instead from dark and warming tones, textures that parlay a sense of drama and richness, and candlelight taken to the extreme, we touched the classic Christmas notes and sent them into the stratosphere. The look for 2024 was evocative of Christmas Past with a hint of Dark Academia, and modern and artsy styling. With grandiose candelabras paired with hand-draped velvet table linens, the dining room looked like something out of a dark fairy tale.

The candelabras: We are obsessed. Made from crystal, they were streamlined, sleek, and quite modern, despite being inherently antique. The design allowed them to be styled in a variety of ways and we loved playing with the antique-modern look and combining it in dramatic and unexpected ways.

The candelabras may have had main character energy, but the draped blue velvet tables took the award for best supporting actor. The Mad Bash team took a lot of care laying and ruching the folds and ensuring that they sat just right. We used special tape to reinforce the fabric so that the texture would be maintained all night. When the lights were dimmed and the candlelight bounced off them, they looked incredibly alive. Swoon!

DARK ELEGANCE HOLIDAY AESTHETIC

With such statement tablecloths, we decided to keep tablewares simple and transparent so as not to compete for the eye too much. The centrepieces, styled by Carmel Floral, were dark, dramatic, and unconventional, and we were very impressed. Deep red and pale pink florals provided contrast and colour to the tables, but we kept our customized menus blue to blend with the table linens. Chairs were in-house and we did get playful with them, mix and matching them in dark upholstered dusty rose, forest green, and deep teal. At each place setting a personalized product gift was left for the guests to help start developing their holiday media coverage, which is what this holiday media preview was all about!

velvet and mirror backdrop photo moment

Elevated photo opportunities are always a MUST and it’s up to us to ideate and craft bold new backdrops that create a complete and immersive scene. In keeping with the ruched blue velvet theme, we designed and built this backdrop, evoking the feeling of a moody boudoir. The guests looked incredible, and we're obsessed with these sumptuous portraits.

Armed with a nail gun and yards upon yards of fabric, we installed this backdrop on-site, and if you are interested in seeing how we did it, you can view a behind-the-scenes reel on our Instagram here!

ELEVATED FOOD AND BEVERAGE EXPERIENCEs

Let’s be honest: As much as the holidays are about being together, there’s no denying that food and drink is a significant part of the appeal! Providing the guests with a special and unique food and beverage experience is integral to the holiday media preview, which is why it has come to be held in a trending 5-star restaurant offering outstanding culinary experiences.

This year we played with signature cocktails and served the Winter’s Kiss, made with a delightful and photogenic cocktail smoke bubble and containing vodka, peach, spirulina, calamansi (a Philippine lime), and white cranberry, alongside the Merry Airy Rita, a tequila, galliano, lemon and brown sugar concoction. Moët & Chandon was also served, as well as a Festive Açai Fizz mocktail.

The standing dessert table was undeniably charming, with a dreamy five-layer white cotton candy cake, offerings like citrus meringue, yuzu lemon cake, and ricotta fritters, all styled on ornate silver trays atop our now signature draped blue velvet table coverings. If an antique fairy tale aesthetic was a thing, this would be it.

That MAGICAL and moody holiday feeling

The holidays are all about expressing our feelings of love and care for others, a feeling that the Sephora brand embodies. By hosting an event in an inspiring environment, connecting guests with their peers in the media and lifestyle industries, serving inventive food and drink, unlocking gift giving and new discoveries, and encouraging holiday love with shareable photo moments, we sent guests home from the Media Preview with the Holiday Collection at the forefront of their mind and a feeling of luxurious warmth in their hearts. What more can one ask for!?

NOT YOUR USUAL HOLIDAY DRAMA

Are you as obsessed with this event as we are? Do you love the aesthetic we created for this iconic brand? We would love to do it for you as well, so please reach out! We are a passionate Toronto-based team of event designers, planners, strategists, producers and fabricators, and have had the pleasure of supporting major brands and local companies achieve their event goals. If you have questions or want to see how we can help, please contact us! We’d love to hear from you!