Power Ball 2013: 69 photos from inside the art party of the year

by Randi Bergman June 7, 2013

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Last night, Power Ball 2013 a.k.a. the art party of the year/social event of the season and so on and so forth went down at The Power Plant gallery on Toronto’s harbourfront. Despite the rain, the city’s finest art, fashion and social types filled the expansive space in designer gowns, costumes, and in one instance, a birthday suit. Celebrating its 15^th year under the guise of Andy Warhol’s famous line “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes,” the space was tricked out with Factory-worthy silver foil which made for some pretty fierce voguing props for designer Jeremy Laing and Frank Griggs much later in the evening. Power Ball’s famed exhibitions and installations were omnipresent as always, including a fortune-telling psychic, Chat Roulette-style wall projections, and two twisted prom queens dancing around a birthday cake and a mounted spinning motorcycle all night long. Curiouser and curiouser…

As we previewed earlier this week, the Power Ball 2013 style factor was off the hook, with the city’s most fashionable getting especially dolled up for the night (we got blowouts!). Holt Renfrew’s Moira Wright, Blaire Borins and Brittany Barkwell proved that black was anything but conventional with Wright and Borins accessorizing with bright and poppy Dannijo and Ela pieces and Barkwell in a YSL style strapless pantsuit. The YSL look was also in effect for stylist Corey Ng, who wore a trompe l’oeil Dior Homme by Hedi Slimane suit jacket that featured twisted lapels down the front. Karolyne Ellacott and Caroline Aksich took the night’s theme to the pop culture extreme with matching purple and blue face paint and blonde wigs à la Warhol’s famed Marilyn Diptych.

Around midnight, the most notable outfit of the evening arrived: save for a pair of high heels, a clutch and a fascinator, one very brazen woman was completely naked. There is no better way to evaluate your own dedication to art party style than to see a real life Lady Godiva (sans horse) in a crowd of of cocktail dresses. While all eyes were on her for much of the night, she made total nakedness look completely NBD—it was enough to make even the most conservative guest consider going au naturel.

As most Power Ball guests petered out around 1:30, a small group of dancing devouts including Rui Amaral, gallerist Daniel Faria, artist Tibi Tibi Neuspiel and a man wearing a lobster headdress stuck around for DJ Travis Richel’s pride-ready tunes. Just your average Power Ball.