At a party in June, revelers clustered into small conversation groups around the glamorous Apparatus design studio in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. Its prevailing sartorial look: tailored irreverent elegance, with a louche, sometimes gender-fluid vibe.
The scene of exquisite urbanity could have been pulled straight from a movie, perhaps a modern retelling of the exploits of classic filmdom’s archetypal sophisticates, Nick and Nora Charles. Instead, it was the latest installment of Café Kallmeyer, Daniella Kallmeyer’s name for the fêtes she hosts sporadically—expressions of gratitude to her “community” of supporters. It was also her 40th birthday, and her guests had dressed in the spirit of the invite’s stated code: “Call out of work tomorrow.”
