What, you’ve never seen a Christmas tree in the shape of a dress made of all the accoutrements of a beautifully set dinner table including the fine china? Clearly, you’ve never been to the Lord Baltimore Hotel’s celebrated Couture Tree Competition.
Fear not! The historic hotel in the heart of downtown Baltimore is once again seeking designers for its Couture Tree Competition for the 2024 holiday season. Trees will be on public display starting Dec. 1 for the entire month.
Businesses, nonprofits, and individual artists from Baltimore and beyond are invited to submit original design sketches to Lee Johnson-Lowe via email by Nov. 1. An internal panel of judges selects the designs that will move on to the final stage of the competition.
Those designers have the chance to build their couture tree on the premises of the hotel for public view and enjoyment, but there’s a catch. Artists cannot begin installing their trees at the hotel until Thanksgiving Day and must be finished by the end of Sunday (Dec. 1) that weekend. In a 2023 interview with Baltimore Fishbowl, Johnson-Lowe explained, however, that many artists begin working on their trees well in advance of even the September announcement of the competition’s start. Installation on Thanksgiving weekend is a matter of transporting and assembling it, though that is no small task, either.
The competition is Johnson-Lowe’s brainchild, and the Lord Baltimore Hotel has been an enthusiastic partner. The base of the design is a tree concept, and the upper part usually becomes a dress form, though Johnson-Lowe does not put any limits or requirements on the designs. “The beauty of this event and competition is the fact that there are no parameters. We do ask for them to submit a concept, a sketch, or a verbiage of what they have in mind,” he said. That, however, is primarily to establish the artist understands the concept and competition.
Winning designs will be chosen through a guest vote at the Lord Baltimore’s private holiday gathering. A winner in each of the two categories — individual/area business design and nonprofit organization design — will receive a grand prize of $500 to honor their exceptional artistry and creativity in fusing holiday foliage with fashion.
For more details, reach out to Lee Johnson-Lowe at ljohnson@lordbaltimorehotel.com.
