Inside Big Bang Bash: 20 photos from the surreal Viktor & Rolf Dolls party at the ROM

See Big Bang Bash Viktor & Rolf Dolls Luminato photos »

Last Saturday night, the arty A-list gathered to celebrate the opening of the Viktor & Rolf Dolls exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. As the pre-emptive kick-off to the Luminato arts festival, which officially begins today, patrons, planners and performers came out en masse including the formidable foreign trio of Marina Abramović, Willem Dafoe and creative director Jörn Weisbrodt. To match the quirky aesthetic of the night’s satellite guests of honour (the designers were unable to repeat their May visit to Toronto), the ROM’s crystal lobby was tricked out with curiously interactive decorations like a sky-high mannequin whose dress gave out jewellery when guests placed their hands inside, a conveyor belt of treats and a literal piano bar which thrilled with its makeshift Prohibition vibe. Everything about the event seemed as if part of a surreal dream, which culminated in the fabulously fringed navy coat belonging to a one Suzanne Boyd catching on fire. With a few ceremonious pats, the fire was extinguished, leaving the glitzy gossipers with something especially titillating to talk about.