‘We have to make a statement’: Stargate-themed White Party at Ku De Ta, Bali, challenges its creative director to ‘improve and improve’ and exceed guests’ expectations
- Dinner parties with guests dressed all in white began in Paris in 1988 and the Dîner en Blanc soon spread around the world. Sean Combs hosted a New York version
- Ku De Ta in Bali took cues from both for its annual White Party, which began in 2003 and draws guests with ‘immersive’ themes – in 2023, the Stargate TV series
In June 1988, after a long stint overseas, François Pasquier invited a group of friends to dinner to celebrate his family’s return to Paris, France.
However, since he didn’t have enough space to host everyone at his home, he held the event in a public park. And to make it easy for his guests to find each other, he asked everyone to dress in white.
The dinner was such a success that Pasquier did it again the following year and the year after that. Eventually, his parties got so big that he turned them into a ticketed event called Dîner en Blanc “dinner in white”).
In 2009 Pasquier’s son, Aymeric, introduced the concept to Montreal, Canada. In 2012, he hosted the first American Dîner en Blanc in New York. In the same year, he founded Dîner en Blanc International, a Canadian company that develops the network and licenses it worldwide.
Spanning six continents and more than 85 cities, Dîner en Blanc is now the world’s biggest dinner party.
