Bruce Weber meets Mies van der Rohe

Barcelona is a city that loves a party — and knows a good one when it sees one. But few had ever seen a party quite like the one DEDON threw on Wednesday night. And there could be no clearer sign of its success than the fact that it was absolutely packed — with celebs, VIPs and notables, no less — on a night when Barcelona was going up against Inter Milan in the Champions League semi-final!

A celebration of the brand’s ongoing collaboration with legendary American fashion photographer Bruce Weber, the party drew heavily on Weber’s distinctive imagery for DEDON to transform one of Barcelona’s — and Modernism’s — most important monuments, the 1936 Barcelona Pavilion by Mies van der Rohe (a building almost never allowed to be used for parties and events) into a rustic, Bohemian hideaway, with a DEDON ORBIT lounger plunked down right in the middle of the pavillion’s pond.

Mies might be rolling over in his grave to see his temple of minimalism strewn with hay bales and country-style blankets, but the style and design-conscious guests couldn’t get enough of the fantastical set design, complete with live models dressed just like their counterparts in the Weber images and striking the same poses, not to mention catering staff donning the same plaid pajamas worn in the shoot.

Within this incredible setting, guests could view 1 x 2 meter prints of the DEDON campaign images, watch the delightful short film Weber created for DEDON and leaf through the freshly printed pages of Coming Home, the sumptuously designed coffee-table book in which 80 or so Weber images are complimented by artwork and illustrations specially commissioned by the photographer.

DEDON Founder and Chairman Bobby Dekeyser and his wife, Ann-Kathrin, were in fine form as they greeted guests, who represented an eclectic mix of ages groups and social circles that don’t usually mingle. Members of the Catalan nobility and Barcelona high society, for example, could be seen rubbing elbows with young fashionistas and a mix of celebrities that included the fabulous Nuria Fergó, one of Spain’s favorite singers, and “it couple” Darek and Susana Urabarri.

Though Barcelona lost the big game (which was shown live and two gigantic plasma screens), it wasn’t enough to damper the celebration inside the pavilion, which only gained momentum — propelled by accelerating beats from the turntables — as the evening went along. Indeed, the mood was positively euphoric. Dekeyser himself refers DEDON not as an outdoor furniture company but as a platform for bringing people together, and it was particularly true on Wednesday night.