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TWELV MAGAZINE "TANABATA PARTY" @LADUREE
July 11, 2018 2:00 PM
Summer is for easy nights with beautiful people, and the love that comes with it. That's what Tanabata, the Japanese midsummer festival, is all about. Growing from the story of two star crossed lovers it has blossomed into a tradition of friendship and well wishing, when people write their dreams on note cards and send up to the stars, like sparrows in flight. It's beautiful, and because we at TWELV make the conscious choice to live and order our lives around beauty, each and every day, we had to make sure that our Tanabata would be beautiful.
The venue was easy enough to choose. Whether you are hoping to enjoy some craft cocktails with rosé champagne or indulge in a garden soiree with friends, there's no place better than Laudreé Soho. It's spacious enough to hang strings between trees and set up tables for eight without cutting into the walking room for servers and photographers. There is a full bar, and an en suite macaroon shop.
And you can capture it all because the lighting is perfect, diffuse over the plaster walls, and there's a photo booth, and the air itself was full, somehow, with muted electricity, ambient waves pumping from the uptempo 90s playlist and occasional Blondie throwbacks.
Still, though, we were there for the people, old friends and new. There was Hissa, our dynamo leader, who matched pace with his cordial introductions and stunning photographs, and kept the Soto sake flowing responsibly. There was Kanami, who was able to keep pace with my friend in Italian slang, and who crafted the beat handmade chocolates, with hints of matcha and caramel and hues of clearest azure, like her kimono. And there were gorgeous geisha girls, and old employees, and up and coming models, and Korean flower designers, and...
And you can imagine how many more. Sure, of course the people are going to be amazing. It's a party, in Lower Manhattan. But the amazing people isn't what made TWELV Tanabata magical. It's not what makes any of TWELV's parties magical, really. What makes them magical is that these amazing people are inviting you to join their family. It's an unspoken invitation and an unwritten wish which everyone sends up to the stars. It is an intimate invitation, the kind you can see from the eyes and the smiles of the people in the pictures.
Or, you could just reach out to us, make plans to come to our next party, and see it for yourself.
Jump to view the complete photo album on the TWELV MAGAZINE FACEBOOK and also another album shot by CHAMA
SPECIAL THANKS: SOTO SAKE & HOSTS CHAMA/HISSA IGARASHI, TRAVIS BASS, KANAMI CHOCOLATE
WRITTEN BY CHRISTOPHER SIEMER
PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHAMA, RYAN KYUNGROC KIM
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