High Gatherings
A few weeks ago we had our postponed launch dinner and boy was it worth the wait. I want to fill you in on what went down and the amazing team who helped pull off this special evening.
Last year, when the pandemic started to improve a little, I knew I wanted to celebrate the start of the High Minds journey with those who have helped and inspired me along the way, so I reached out to 3 people that I knew would make this night one to remember.
The first, being my girl: Sinead Lawlor, an incredible fashion designer (ah you know yourself doing stuff Mary J Blige and whatnot) who moved back to Ireland from NYC a few years ago to start her own homeware brand: Gathered Edge. Keep an eye out on her Instagram for more on that one.
We mapped out a vision together to create a beautiful setting to support both of our stories. After a serious amount of video calls during the pandemic, we established that we wanted to create an atmosphere through the table that would feel refined, yet warm, and most importantly: a table that would invite people in. The idea of making our own placemats came up very out of the blue and was an amazing focal point for both the food and the table. The homely feel of the quilted placemats, the naturally dyed fabrics, and using High Minds bongs as our vases made for quite the setting. The table cloth and napkins were naturally dyed by Sinead with the addition of the cross stitch as a nice little touch.
Originally I considered cooking this meal myself but then I began to open up conversations with the next person, my dear friend Cúán Green. For those of you who don’t know him, Cúán is the founder of ÓMÓS; as it says on its IG profile “A mindful community, focused on food and farming in Dublin, Ireland.” and that it is. After living in Copenhagen for 3 years working in restaurants like Geranium and Noma, his pining for the Irish shores was strong and he moved back. After I asked him to take the lead on the food, we chatted at length about High Minds and its ethos, and how he could align with that pillar in what the dinner would represent.
A few days before the dinner, the physical prep started with a day of foraging. I was expecting to be taken out into the near countryside, but instead, Cúán took me to his spots around Dublin City in the search of fig leaves, elderflower, and rugosa roses. All of these elements were used throughout the dinner alongside his range of other items that have been foraged and preserved.
From the shots you will have seen scattered through our social channels, you know that the food was insanely beautiful and I can also comment personally that it was one of the best meals I have ever eaten… I may be slightly biased though.
The final person who I asked to join us to capture the whole event was Ran Cai. I knew Ran through his work in Dublin-based store Indigo & Cloth. From getting to know him and his creative eye over the past few years, I knew he would be the perfect person to capture the smaller intimate details and moments of the evening while providing a sense of what the whole evening was about and he did quite the job at that. The whole event was beautifully shot on 35mm film.
Ran captured the event so well, that we received lots of messages about the possibility of doing another High Gatherings event- which we think we will just have to! If you’re interested in future events, reach out to us and we’ll put you on the interested list.
You can check out a lot more of the photos on our Instagram story highlight of the evening. But I’ll leave you with a few of my favorites for now.
Dee