Synopses & Reviews
As sweet as a love note, as welcome as a holiday, as easy as pie.
Take simple squares of cloth, succinctly written directions, and clearly photographed steps and create fantastic napkin folds that transform your table into a showpiece.
Mixing whimsy and elegance, celebrity event designer David Stark fashions stylish setups for every occasion. In Napkins with a Twist, Stark turns his unerring eye to the art of the perfect table setting, focusing on the quick, inexpensive, and creative.
From everyday to evening, children's parties to black-tie affairs, a clever napkin fold turns any gathering into a memorable event. Classic folds such as the Tuexedo Fold, together with Stark's own innovative designs—including the wildly fun Fortune Cookie and Sushi Roll folds—make setting the table a no-brainer.
Folds from Buckingham Palace and the Kennedy White House, New York's Pierre and Napa Valley's French Laundry, reveal how royalty, the rich and famous, the world's legendary restaurants, all put just the right touches on their signature starched linens.
Along with its array of napkin folds, Napkins with a Twist spills over with useful tips, how-to lists, etiquette reminders, table settings, and surprising suggestions for how a napkin fold can become the starting point for designing an entire occasion.
Synopsis
Mixing whimsy and elegance, celebrity event designer David Stark fashions stylish setups for every occasion.
When magazines want to know what’s going to be in style next, they ask tastemaker David Stark. Here, in Napkins with a Twist, Stark turns his unerring eye to the art of the perfect table setting and presentation, focusing on the quick, inexpensive, and endlessly creative possibilities offered by simple squares of fabric. From whimsical to formal, everyday to evening, these napkin folds encompass everything from classics such as the French fold and the peacock to Stark’s own innovative designs, as well as famous signature folds—from Buckingham Palace to the White House, The Pierre in New York to the Greenbrier in West Virginia, Michael Bras Restaurant in France to Delmonico's in New York. Additionally, Stark takes a peek inside some of the world’s most luxurious dining halls—the captain’s black-tie table on the Titanic, the chic Napa Valley dining room of The French Laundry—and reveals how the best in the business put just the right touches on their starched linens. Accompanied by both beautiful color photographs and practical, step-by-step photos, Napkins with a Twist is a much-needed breath of fresh air in this surprisingly fertile little niche and is destined to become the new classic in the field.
About the Author
David Stark is the president and creative director of one of New Yorks esteemed event-planning firms, David Stark Design and Production, which creates elaborate events hosted by New Yorks elite, including the New York City Opera, MoMA, Sotheby's, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Target. His wildly inventive ideas have been featured in magazines such as InStyle Home, House Beautiful, Elle Décor, Traditional Home, and Modern Bride, and he has appeared on national television shows including Martha Stewart Living, Martha, Today, and The View. The author of Napkins with a Twist and co-author of To Have and To Hold and Wild Flowers, Stark lives in Brooklyn, New York.