‘I’m channeling Christmas meets Hollywood’

Party designer Fiona Leahy, 49, is the founder and creative director of Fiona Leahy Design. She made her name throwing dahlia-strewn lunches for Christian Louboutin, lavish suppers for Smythson and Dior, Chinese-lantern-lit dinners for Louis Vuitton and Dita Von Teese and Jade Jagger’s 30th birthday pyjama party at Claridge’s. ™

My starting point for this Christmas table was a chic burgundy tablecloth from Once Milano (oncemilano.com), with palepink porcelain “Rinka” plates by Kaneko Kohyo (ko-hyo.com). I like the idea of a well-travelled table, taking influences from around the world. I make my own marbled paper crackers, with monogrammed velvet bows by Hand & Lock (handembroidery.com) and paper by Jemma Lewis Marbling (jemmamarbling.com). It’s so easy to make your own. I’m obsessed with Grandirosa Floral Designs’ glamorous blown out roses in deep red (grandirosa. com), and I wanted to channel a “Christmas-meets-Hollywood at Tony Duquette’s house” look.

I love the idea of a table setting being painterly, and the fresh pomegranates, figs and grapes strewn over the table have a Dutch masters’ vibe. The burgundy candles are by a great new company called Candle Flair (candleflair. com), and the green glasses are from R+D.LAB (researchanddesignlab.com). For placements, I buy empty snow globes, spray the base with spray paint from Cass Art to match the tablecloth, cut coloured card into a dome shape and insert it, writing the guest’s name with a Tombow brush pen. When it comes to cutlery, I prefer heavy vintage silver at Christmas. The Oliver Messel suite at the Dorchester, where this table was laid by the fireplace, is so decadent. Messel was a stage designer, and to me, this is a really traditionally Christmassy setting.