Interior designer, author, and EyeSwoon founder Athena Calderone hosted a cocktail party at her Tribeca home with Beni founders Tiberio Lobo Navia and Robert Wright to celebrate the launch of Salon, her latest collection for the Marrakesh-based global rug brand. On the eve of her home renovation, Calderone leaned into the dramatic scale to transform the space into an expansive installation with large-scale rug designs displayed as artwork on the 13-foot walls throughout. Celebrated chef, Andy Baraghani prepared hors d'oeuvres on a table of silver dinnerware that evoked a bygone era from a Renaissance still-life painting. In addition to cocktails and wine, the functional, non-alcoholic spirit Aplos was served. The installation was one night only as Athena embarks on a year-long renovation of the home she has designed to reflect her exploration into richer palettes, streamlined silhouettes, and restrained yet elegant design styles.
The initial spark for Calderone’s Art Deco-inspired collection came from a 1930s pen and ink drawing of a Viennese building by Austrian architect Josef Hoffman. She photographed the page, drew a rectangle around his rectangles, and immediately put pen to paper, sketching a series of repeated lines and self-enclosed motifs to design the first rug in the collection. To further explore the functionalist period where it began, she traveled to Vienna and then to Paris, where the name for the collection was born. In early modern France, salons were social and intellectual gatherings that played an integral role in the country's cultural development. As Calderone has hosted salons—the French word for "living room"—in her own home for years, the name felt fitting for a rug collection that will inspire many more gatherings to come.
Nearly 120 guests gathered at Athena's home for the evening, including talents from the worlds of entertainment, fashion, food, and design: Zanna Roberts Rassi, Daphne Oz, Chrissy Rutherford, Coco Bassey, Eva Alt, Colin King, Marcos Fecchino, Beverly Nguyen, Jenné Newton-Haydon, Giancarlo Valle, Jane Keltner de Valle, Jacquelyn Jablonski, Estelle Bailey-Babenzien, Brendan Fallis, Quentin Jones, Simone Bodmer-Turner, Rafael Prieto, Jane Yang-D'Haene, Sophie Lou Jacobsen, Madelynn Furlong Hudson, Chelsea Leyland, and prestigious design editors.
