DIFFA

  • Charities,  DIFFA,  Interior Designers,  Italy,  Life and Style,  Parties,  Promemoria

    It’s Time To Celebrate!

    Davide and Paolo Sozzi

    Welcome to the DIFFA Age


    The Italian furniture atelier PROMEMORIA held its annual holiday parties in cities around the world this week including Paris, Moscow, London, Milan and New York. At the New York fete, in the company’s Upper East Side showroom at the Fine Arts Building, New York’s prominent interior designers, design editors and design-loving New Yorkers gathered with hosts Davide and Paolo Sozzi to celebrate the season take a chance in a “Wish-Raffle” to benefit Design Industries’ Foundation Fighting AIDS (DIFFA). Guests made a wish and a donation to the organization for a chance to win one of two tremendous prizes.
    Some of the wishes were general in nature, others were more specific to the AIDS cause, for which DIFFA has mobilized the immense resources of the design communities and granted over $40 million to hundreds of AIDS service organizations nationwide since its founding in 1984. Journalist and author Jorge Arango made this heartfelt wish “As someone who has lived with AIDS since 1993, it is my sincerest wish that the good works done by DIFFA will not be necessary in some near future, and that a cure will make the organization’s existence unnecessary.” David Sheppard, Executive Director of DIFFA National for more than 15 years, wished for generous benefactors: “What a difference it would make if more companies like Promemoria added ‘doing good’ to doing good business!”

    Raffle prizes were donated by generous sponsors and included The MoMA VIP Experience (featuring a private, after-hours tour of the museum and dinner for four at The MODERN restaurant, one of New York’s premiere dining experiences), and a deluxe Holiday Home Entertaining package (featuring 8 bottles of fine wine from LaCrema, 6 hand-blown Murano glass tumblers by Promemoria, and a $100 gift certificate to chef Mario Batali’s Eataly Market).
    Arlene Angard, RioHamilton, VynaStPard
    Michael Tavano, Barry Richards
    Rock Axtman and Inson Wood

    DIFFA Director Bill Murphy
    Darrin Varden, Michael Tavano, LarryMartino
    Dennis Scully and Michael Tavano
    Fruit Display
    James Rixner and Rio Hamilton
    Jorge Arango, Vyna St Phard
    Maggie Brown, Steven Williams 
    Michael Tavano, Arlene Angard, Vyna St Phard
    Michael Tavano, Arlene Angard
    Michael Tavano, Larry Martino

    The three hour party was afloat in Italian wine and Prosecco, delicious hors d’oeuvres were copious and a huge buffet table laden with luscious fruits in della robbia style displays and several enormous Panettone, the traditional sweet breads that mark the holidays in Italy, and which hail from the north of the country, where Promemoria is headquartered and where they makes all of their fine furniture, lighting and gift items by hand.

    Live jazz from the 45 Riots Quartet featuring Broadway 
    star LaShonda Reese singing holiday and jazz favorites
    Rock Axtman, Lizzy Schofield
     The Panettone is the highlight of the event, and is flown in from Milan especially for the occasion by Promemoria, which has its entire staff tasting various versions of Panettone from Milan’s top bakeries and voting on the favorite months in advance of its worldwide celebrations.

    Photos courtesy Promemoria
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