DARK AND DASTARDLY: Edward Gorey’s work casts a haunting gloom and next week party guests will be able to embrace a similar inherent darkness at Gorey 849.
Organized by Evan Hungate and Kayvon Zand, the Oct. 30 party will raise money for the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust. Attendees received all the details on a headstone-shaped invitation with a Gorey-sketched image of three flashlight-wielding policemen trailing a well-dressed woman pushing someone bundled up in a wheelchair as an armed man lurks in a stone building. Oh, and an elevated body is outstretched overhead.
The ghoulish set design at the Kimpton Hotel is being handled by Jasin Cadic. Fashion designer-DJ Timo Weiland will be handling the music with Erik Izquierdo. BLT founder and chef Laurent Tourondel will be serving up the hors d’oeuvres. In terms of the dress code, the hotel’s staff at 849 Sixth Avenue has been advised to go with the Edward Gorey theme. Anything black is a safe bet. Gorey has been a source of inspiration for fashion collections including Imitation of Christ’s one last fall in a Los Angeles skate park.
Recognizable for his macabre artistic style, Gorey, who was also a writer and Tony award winning costume designer, died in 2000. The artist’s charitable trust has received a $10,000 donation and 50 percent of the table sales for the event will also be donated.
At next weekend’s event, there will also be a series of performers including The Girls of Karen Black and Amanda Lepore, among others.
Fans of Bravo’s “Real Housewives of New York City” and “Real Housewives of New Jersey” will find Luann de Lesseps as a special guest and Margaret Josephs as mistress of ceremonies. Gorey 849 will also feature drag performer CT Hedden, who was instantly sold on the theme of this year’s party. “He’s one of my favorite artists. I love the simplicity of the line work. It’s a really big deal. This is the first time that his trust has partnered with anything to do with nightlife,” said Hedden, who prefers to be identified as “he” or “him.”
The performer plans to depict a live painting of himself in Gorey’s style of work. That means that Hedden’s makeup will be akin to the artist’s linear aesthetic. A test run has already been done and others will follow before the event on Halloween Eve. Afterward, Hedden plans to dash upstairs to a hotel room to be filmed transforming into an inner animal look that he has been developing for four months. He will then return for a performance. Koji Ichikawa will style Hedden’s hair, the Liverpool-based JacXson is providing the look and MAC Pro is providing the cosmetics.
Having done a walkthrough of the venue, Hedden said Gorey 849 will cater to both the gala-charity world and the nightlife one. Already under construction, the space is being reconfigured with a hedge maze being set up in one of the rooms. There will also be four different stages with an assortment of vignettes and performers planned.