Inside Svenskt Tenn’s Chic Dinner at Manhattan’s Consulate General of Sweden

The 3,925 miles between New York and Stockholm lessened considerably Thursday evening as the design brand Svenskt Tenn hosted a chic dinner at the Consulate General of Sweden on Park Avenue, hosted by CEO Maria Veerasamy. Those attending included Mickalene Thomas, Gucci Westman, Sally Singer,  Johan Lindeberg, Mickey Boardman, Maria Cornejo, Lynn Yaeger, Vogue’s very own Chioma Nnadi, and Swedish photographic and creative direction duo Peter Farago and Ingela Klemetz Farago.

Svenskt Tenn is renowned for plenty of things, not least the pioneering spirit of founder Estrid Ericson, who began the company in 1924, its gorgeous store on Strandvagen in Stockholm, and for one Josef Frank, an Austrian emigre designer who, for much of the 20th century, created such iconic pieces for the company as the sprawling bed-sized Liljevalchs sofa, and oh so many joyous and exuberant textiles, from Baraquilla to Mirakel to Navigare. (Many might want their ashes scattered at Bergdorf Goodman. Me? I’d take Svenskt Tenn any day.)  

The dinner was both a curtain raiser to the brand’s 100th anniversary next year, and to honor the work of Frank, whose particular brand of life-affirming Modernist aesthetic was shaped by his time in Manhattan during the Second World War. There he designed some of his most famous textiles and furniture pieces, hence the name for tonight’s festivities, The American Chapter.  “Josef made fifty of his most cherished and important prints in New York,” said Veerasamy. “To be here is to experience what it is about the city that made him so creative.”

Those ultra-vivid patterns of his made quite an impact at the dinner. Four long tables were dressed in different fabrics of his design, with Frank-authored flower and fruit textile cut-outs strewn across the top for good measure, all adding to the merriment. (The general rule with Frank’s work: more is more, and even more is even better.) Guests ate an equally vivid (and absolutely delicious) menu that included tomatoes dressed in sea buckthorn oil, Hispi cabbage, grilled sea bass, smoked potatoes, and brown butter cake swirled with whipped cream and lemon curd.