Back in 2011, Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry and artist Marina Abramović had their bodies turned into cake and served at the annual Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles gala. It was a singular performance that stuck with the fashion designer Thom Browne, who all these years later finally found the right moment to collaborate with its mastermind, Raphaël Castoriano of Kreëmart.
For his turn at site-specific edible art (say that three times fast), on October 6 Browne took over Goodman’s Bar at Bergdorf Goodman to reveal a full-scale replica of his own midcentury modern kneehole desk—made entirely in marble pound cake.
“Since the desk is such an emblematic symbol in Thom’s work, we wanted to center it in our collaboration,” says Castoriano, who partnered with his longtime collaborator, chef Guido Mogni of Sant Ambroeus, on the design.
Browne also took inspiration from Leandro Erlich’s 2022 Art Basel installation, You Can’t Have Your Cake and Eat It, Too, which featured Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona daybed and footstool made of cake. Browne’s take, based on the IRL design by T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb Furniture Co., was hand-constructed entirely from cake and included three functioning chocolate drawers. There were also prints of Thom Browne fabric swatches done on edible rice paper.
At Browne’s event, the piece—aptly titled Uniformly—was activated by a model going through the motions of a day at work. “The performance is about the abundance of surprise to be discovered within a uniform, daily routine,” Castoriano says. Change is, after all, the only constant—and cake is always a good idea.
Sean Santiago is ELLE Decor's Deputy Editor, covering news, trends and talents in interior design, hospitality, travel, and luxury. He writes the So Courant! column for the magazine and elledecor.com.
