Interior design’s crème de la crème gathered Monday for the 45th annual Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club President’s Dinner raising more than $1 million for the youth charity.
Guests included newly appointed White House interior designer Tham Kannalikham — who noted how honored she is that First Lady Melania Trump singled out her talents to redecorate the Executive Mansion’s private quarters.
The former Ralph Lauren Home creative dined alongside Christopher Spitzmiller and Martha Stewart at the black tie affair at Cipriani 42nd Street in Manhattan.
“I’ve been coming to Kips Bay for 40 years,” noted design doyenne and event co-chair Bunny Williams. “Once you go out to the Boys and Girls Club and you see what they do then you’re completely addicted.”
The gala was held ahead of the organization’s largest fund-raising effort, the annual Decorator Show House, at a 1905 neo-Georgian town house on East 65th Street built by renowned architect Charles Platt.
“It launches young designers,” explained Williams of the space that will be transformed by some of the industry’s greatest talent within a span of just six weeks. “Older and more establish designers [will have a presence], but it’s always better to actually be in a room than to just look at a picture.”
The transformative efforts by industry luminaries Billy Cotton, Ken Fulk and Robert A.M. Stern among others will be unveiled with a VIP cocktail reception on May 1. The general public will be invited to view the rooms starting May 2.