Planning a party - here are some tips

[Tropicana]

Preston Bailey shares how he created his magic. Notice his accent has a slight Caribbean flair. He was born in Panama. With a name like Bailey I wonder if his people are from Jamaica. Anybody know. He also has the obligatory "you know" that Jamaican males have copyrighted. Also notice some of his phasing "amount of".... plus "ideader" which is more Trinidadian...

[Tropicana]

Okay...here is why.

Bailey, whose grandparents hailed from Jamaica and Trinidad, grew up in Panama in typical Caribbean circumstances. He was just an average kid with no artistic pretensions whatsoever; he claims he “barely graduated” from high school. At 19, his parents sent him to join his sisters in New York. Handsome and svelte, he soon became a fashion model, a career he pursued for ten years.

But modelling, of course, has a limited shelf life; so Bailey moved sideways into retail, opening a men’s clothing store. His business venture was ill-fated – “Poor management,” he jokes – and he found himself casting around for something to do. A friend who was organising a society event suggested that he do the flowers.“I needed to eat,” he says wryly. “The flower thing came because I needed a job. I’d never touched a flower before.”
The rest was history. New York City at the time was party central and the concept of creating dramatic event spaces was just beginning to take hold. He visited art galleries, did intense research, read a lot of books. For Bailey, it was a steep learning curve, but “Once I started doing it, I completely got into it. It’s really a matter of paying attention. It’s amazing what you can learn by actually doing something. You screw up a lot; but you learn.”
He gained experience by doing parties for his friends for free; today, his clients are A-list celebrities and a Preston Bailey installation can run literally to millions of dollars.

Preston Bailey’s story reads almost like a fairytale – it is a genuine rags-to-riches saga. “I came from a very poor background,” this Panamanian native declares frankly; and if he sounds a little proud of that fact, he has every reason to be.Today, Bailey, 58, is New York’s pre-eminent creator of celebratory décor – he has done everything from Donald Trump’s latest wedding to Oprah’s 50th-birthday bash. Movie stars and Middle Eastern princesses alike place their faith in his extravagant visions, guaranteed to make their nuptials or anniversary parties the talk of the town.
With so much high-end hobnobbing, one might expect Bailey to be … shall we say, a little aloof? So it is a relief and a delight to meet a tall, smiling man with the friendly, easy-going manner of a born Caribbean liming-pardner: no affectations whatsoever, and the ability to laugh heartily at himself.
Bailey’s genius lies in his ability to transform a mundane space – a tent, a stable, an aircraft hangar – into something magical and memorable, using mainly flowers and fabric. Mind you, a lot of flowers, and huge swathes of fabric.
“Discreet” is not a word in this man’s vocabulary; neither is “restraint”.
“I love abundance,” he confesses. “I think one can be very generous with flowers. Less is not more for us.”
Picture Nature on steroids, and you’ve got a starting point.

Read the original article here: http://caribbean-beat.com/issue-97/p...#ixzz2z9YNWSql

[Tropicana]