Ken Fulk Designs Opulent Lounges for New York Fashion Week
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Ken Fulk always dreamed of being famous. “When I was a kid in rural Virginia,” he explains, “my parents would ask me where I wanted to live, and I’d always say ‘Manhattan!’” The experiential designer, now based in San Francisco, is known for eclectic spaces that evoke over-the-top opulence, which is exactly why IMG commissioned him to __design lounges for the 2017 edition of New York Fashion Week (NYFW), where fame is on everyone’s mind.
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The three lounges at Skylight Clarkson Square reflect Fulk’s signature extravagance. Sitting areas feature sumptuous leather sofas accented by gilded side tables. The artwork, neatly arranged on colorful lacquered-wood walls, includes Fulk’s own collection of portraits. One lounge’s malachite mural depicts Michelangelo’s David in gold, while hand-painted zebras adorn the VIP lounge’s bar, appropriately called "Fancy as Fulk." “We want to make people feel glamorous and a wee bit famous when they enter the spaces,” Fulk says. “I always think at any moment, a troupe of dancers may enter from stage left.”
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Fulk’s installation also offers a dose of social commentary. “In an increasingly picture-perfect, Instagram-worthy world, everyone seems to be seeking their 15 minutes of fame, one filtered fragment at a time,” says Fulk, who was inspired by Andy Warhol. Fulk collaborated with Christie’s to emblazon an original Warhol illustration—the lounge’s pièce de résistance—on a hallway wall, which displays the late artist’s popular prophecy: “In the future, everyone will be world famous for fifteen minutes.”
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