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The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting colder, and you may have begun to spy the glimmer of lights strung up in neighborhood windows. It can only mean one thing: the festive season is upon us. (Yes, already.)
Of course, with the holiday season comes the inevitable influx of invitations to gatherings large and small. But what if you’re planning to host a festive soirée of your own? Where can you turn for guidance on how to lay a table with creative flair? Fear not, we’ve got you covered.
In honor of the many holidays that run from Thanksgiving to Christmas to Kwanzaa—and all the way through to the Lunar New Year at winter’s end—Vogue has gathered some of our favorite interior designers, decorators, and tastemakers to create holiday tablescapes to spark inspiration during the most wonderful time of the year, and to share a few of their top hosting tips, too.
Here, find everything you need to guide you through the process of decking the halls (or at least, the tables) this holiday season, courtesy of Laila and Nadia Gohar, Alex Tieghi-Walker, the Wing on Wo Co. team, Martina Mondadori, and Lauren Santo Domingo. Oh, and if anything catches your eye and you want to shop the tablescapes below—head right this way.
Alex Tieghi-Walker of Tiwa Select
As a British native living in New York, for Alex Tieghi-Walker, celebrating the holiday season is usually an informal affair: “Normally I host a large meal for Brits and other waifs and strays who don’t go home to their families,” he explains. Still, the founder of the cult design store and gallery Tiwa Select notes that there’s a method to the madness. “I don t want guests to feel overwhelmed or uncomfortable at a table, especially if someone is joining a group of people they don t know so well—which is often the case, as I like to introduce new people to one another,” he says. “I like every element of a dinner party or gathering to incite conversation or intrigue, from the guest list and meal itself, down to the objects I place on the table.”
It’s a spirit reflected in the tablescape he created for Vogue at his Tiwa Gallery space in Tribeca, which features an eclectic array of objects spanning kaleidoscopic glassware from the Venice-based Laguna~B, slumped glass plates made by the artist Leo Kaspar, and iron candelabras by Andrew Pierce Scott. Elsewhere, you’ll find a bowl of bristly durian fruit that Tieghi-Walker sourced from a local Chinatown grocery store, alongside ikebana-like arrangements of wilted flowers created by his friend Alex Crowder of Field Studies Flora with leftovers from another project she recently worked on. “I weirdly like flowers as they push past their prime and take on new form and color as they wilt,” he adds. “There s something nice about having imperfection on the table.”
For Tieghi-Walker, it’s all about creating moments that feel unexpected. “I love the little community of weird objects that sit in conversation with each other on this table,” he adds. “Part of the joy of being a gallerist and working with talented artists is being able to share their work and their stories with others, so I like being able to talk to the process and narrative behind certain things on the table that people then get to use. Art should be engaging and interactive, not just kept on display.”
As for his most important entertaining tips as the holiday season quickly approaches? Number one: never plan for a set number of guests. “I love an open invitation, knowing that people will drop in and out,” says Tieghi-Walker, noting that he deliberately prepared a stack of extra place settings in the kitchen and set aside a few spare chairs, just in case. Another of his recommendations is to set the table in advance, to “create a feeling of anticipatory delight.” But arguably most important of all? Keep dessert simple, whether fruit and ice cream, or a serving of Ines Rosales anise crackers. “The last thing I want to think about during the meal is having to leave the table to prepare a complicated dessert,” he explains. Sound advice. —Liam Hess
Wing on Wo Co.
For the multi-generational family team behind the porcelain specialty shop Wing on Wo Co., the holiday season is all about family—no wonder, given that many of its younger members practically grew up in the store. “Wing on Wo is our family living room,” says Mei Lum, a fifth-generation member of the dynasty behind what is now the oldest-running business in Manhattan’s Chinatown, and who spearheaded the store’s revival in 2016 after her grandmother was considering selling the company and the building that houses it. “I grew up celebrating almost every life milestone in our back kitchen, gathering around our kitchen table.” It’s a tradition that has continued even as Wing on Wo has entered a new era: “As our family and chosen family have grown with the shop’s regeneration and our non-profit arm, The W.O.W. Project, we have been cooking feasts in the back kitchen and setting a long table in the storefront space for 10 to 20 of our closest community,” Lum adds.
When it came to putting together a holiday tablescape for Vogue, Lum worked closely with the creative and artistic direction team Mischelle Moy and Vivian Sangsukwirasathien: first discussing the mood and narrative they wanted to establish, and then selecting a few statement pieces around which Moy sketched their collective vision for a showstopping festive banquet. “We wanted to create a tablescape that embodied the decadence of Chinese banquets while also capturing the warmth and intimacy of gathering with loved ones around the dinner table,” says Lum.
Beginning with orange, red, and yellow hues as a nod to harvest season, the team also chose to integrate water caltrops and persimmons as symbols of abundance and transformation. A key piece was the store’s beloved Togetherness tray, reinterpreted anew by ceramicist Tiffany Saw, and featuring a carved porcelain cover decorated with “auspicious peaches and heavenly bats,” in Lum’s words; another is a monkey centerpiece dating back to her grandfather’s days sourcing objects for the store, which she notes is “perfect for a floral sculpture, fruit, or even a main dish like a steamed fish.” And if you’re particularly taken by Wing on Wo’s approach to tablescaping? Make sure to stop by their storefront over the next month—Lum notes the team has plenty more holiday homewares surprises up their sleeve. —L.H.
Prop styling, art direction: Vivian Sangsukwirasathien & Mischelle Moy. Florals: Vivian Sangsukwirasathien. Dim Sum from Hop Lee.
Laila and Nadia Gohar of Gohar World
Laila Gohar has three main hosting tips for the holiday season. One: “As the host, you need to be having a good time. If you’re not having fun then no one else will either.” Two: “Don’t be afraid to ask your guests for help.” Three: “Don’t start washing dishes while the party is still happening. The minute you start washing dishes the party is over.”
Speaking of dishes: above, she decorates her simple white porcelain ones with fall radishes and Egyptian linens from her company Gohar World, which she runs alongside her sister Nadia. “We’re Egyptian and all the linens we make are produced in Egypt. They’re made in family-run ateliers that use really high-quality Egyptian cotton and employ different kinds of intricate needlework. They’ve used the same methods for decades so these linens inherently feel like heirlooms,” she says. Yet she never wants her setting to feel stuffy, so her fine textiles are offset by candles wrapped with blue bows and swan tureen. “All my tables are very different. They really depend on my mood and how I’m feeling,” she explains. “This tablescape was festive and fun. There are some elements of more traditional pieces but presented in a way that feels very me and expressive of my entertaining style.”
Gohar will be hosting family and friends this holiday—even if she doesn’t know precisely who yet. “I have an open-door policy. I don’t do a ton of planning in advance,” she says. “I especially like hosting people who were maybe unable to travel to be with their families, or are stuck in the city for whatever reason. I think of our home as a place where everyone can come.” —Elise Taylor
Martina Mondadori of Cabana
When it comes to setting a table—something Martina Mondadori knows a thing or two about, as the founder of cult interiors publication Cabana and its accompanying homewares line, Casa Cabana—she always starts with one key item: the tablecloth. “It sets the mood,” she explains. “It’s like a canvas.” (For the tablescape she created for Vogue in her Milan apartment, she used the Skyros table linen she recently launched at Cabana in collaboration with the Benaki Museum in Athens; as Mondadori notes, “the colors are very festive.”)
Once you have the canvas stretched, it’s time to let your creative side come out—and begin layering. For Mondadori, who has never met a joyously clashing print she didn’t like, raffia placemats made for her line by artisans in Colombia were the first port of call, followed by hand-painted Italian plates from her Houghton Hall collection and single-bud vases displaying seasonal flowers and berries. “I wanted it to feel festive, layered and cozy and as authentic to my way of entertaining as possible—and I feel red and green is such a universal language when it comes to the holiday season!” Mondadori adds.
In the lead-up to Christmas, Mondadori is already planning plenty of gatherings of friends and family. “I especially love to mix generations, gathering at the table my friends, my children and their friends. I feel the conversations when young ones are around are always so fun, and it’s very interesting to hear their point-of-view on things.” But her ultimate hosting tips? Those would be “a great tablescape, a great group of people, and great wine.” Spoken like a true Italian. —L.H.
Lauren Santo Domingo of Tiffany Co.
Setting a table, says Lauren Santo Domingo, is just like getting dressed: “First I think of the occasion and what would be most appropriate. Is it formal or more relaxed?” This Thanksgiving, the Moda Operandi co-founder and the artistic director of Tiffany Co.’s homewares line is leaning toward the former. Maple leaves accent Tiffany Crest plates that she herself designed, complete with a shield motif that incorporates house codes like dragonflies, diamonds, and silversmith tools. The blue, white, and orange color palette, meanwhile, is a nod to the flag of New York City. Scrolled across is a motto: Reverter ad Tiffany, or “Return to Tiffany” in Latin. “I’m very much a traditionalist at heart,” she says.
Sure, Santo Domingo wants her table to be stylish and original. But most of all, she just wants it to be memorable: “For the holidays, I like to think about creating memories. I have very distinct memories of the same set of china we used for most formal meals in our house,” she says. —E.T.
