Sean Myers

t’s a busy time for Fiona Leahy, the fashion world’s party designer of choice. In the past few months she’s thrown a dahlia-strewn lunch for Christian Louboutin in London and a Chinese lantern-lit dinner for Louis Vuitton in New York. It seems her immaculately designed parties have got fashion’s night owls in a right old flap.

Leahy got her big break planning the wedding of Dita Von Teese and Marilyn Manson in 2005. It was, unsurprisingly, a Victorian Gothic affair, held in Castle Gurteen, County Tipperary, down the road from where Leahy grew up. She flew in 4,000 blood-red roses for the occasion, spun swans out of sugar and each guest went home with a pearl-framed cameo. After the event was featured in American Vogue, calls for Leahy’s services came in from the Emir of Qatar’s wife Sheikha Mozah and Damien Hirst.

Before planning parties, Leahy, 42, worked in fashion production and illustration, having studied at Parsons — New York’s answer to Central Saint Martins. She assisted the fashion stylist Patti Wilson, working with i-D magazine and the photographer David LaChapelle, before moving to London in the early 1990s where, for a time, she was Jade Jagger’s PA. ‘She told me, “The last thing I need is to employ someone creative,” so I just threw myself into packing up boxes and arranging things in London because she was spending a lot of time in Ibiza.’

It was with Jagger that Leahy first learned how to throw a proper party. She says the most memorable bash they arranged together was Jagger’s 30th: ‘I was still learning the trade, but we did a great sleepover at Claridge’s, where Playboy supplied all the cigars and eye masks, and everyone feasted on lobster, caviar and champagne.’ She also threw Jagger’s first anniversary party as creative director for Garrard: ‘I booked Dita for that. No one had heard of her but I was into burlesque and she did her Martini glass routine.’

After these successes, Leahy became a full-time party planner in 2007, although she’d never call herself that. ‘I’m a creative director, a sort of entertainment entrepreneur. No, wait, I’m a party bitch.’ At any one time Leahy has six or seven events on the go, coordinated from her Kensal Rise home/studio, which she shares with her pampered terrier Riley.

So how much does a Leahy-designed party cost? ‘£1m is not outrageous, and for parties in the Middle East you are looking at £5m upwards.’ A princely sum indeed, but when your clients demand albino peacocks and bespoke lace fans from the same house that made Marie Antoinette’s, the bill can easily soar skywards.

With her fashion training, Leahy has a keen eye for a trend, claiming her company was the first to catch on to circus lights and sugar sculptures. So what’s the secret to a swinging soirée this Christmas? ‘People want human contact, so show your guests your personality. You can do festive, but don’t go overboard with fake snow on logs.’ What no poinsettias? ‘Never. They are the sunflower of the winter.’ ( fionaleahy.com)