On May 1, 2008 the Jacksonville City Center held their Fifth Annual Cocktail Couture event, which is an exciting apparel design competition among some of Jacksonville's most talented Design Firm Teams. Sponsors: Wilsonart Hunter Douglas Keys Granite Daltile Perdue Office Interiors HM Workplace Resource C FL Millwork Design Studio Shaw Bentley Prince Street Rolland, Delvalle, Bradley, Inc. Traditions in Tile and Stone Merrill Lynch Dixie Contract Constantine Patcraft/Designweave Steelcase Wolf Gordon KBJ Armstrong Commercial Interiors Dixie Contract Acousti Teknion Holmes & Brakel Designtex Details Florida Office Interiors/Global Lees/Karastan Shaw (state sponsorship) Tile Market (state sponsorship) Trinity Tile Carnegie Fabrics Designers used donated industry materials to create fabulous "Big Bold Derby Hats" for the second year in a row in honor of the stylish Kentucky Derby affair.   The hats were judged and auctioned for a wonderful local charitable organization, Dignity U Wear. You may recall that philanthropist and Holocaust survivor, Henri Landwirth, founded Dignity U Wear in 2000 in Jacksonville.   The mission of the Dignity U Wear Foundation, Inc. is to positively impact the lives of children and their families by providing brand new clothing.  The fulfillment of this goal has been instrumental in restoring hope and self-esteem for those in need throughout our region.  As a result of our relationship with this foundation over the last few years, we have come to get to know the honorable staff at Dignity U Wear. We had over 100 industry reps, architects and designers attend the social; Every year, we have a wonderful hodge podge of attendees from designers, local and out of town manufacture representatives, contractors, architects and Dignity U Wear employees.  Companies that were represented included Florida Office Interiors, Acousti Engineering, Dixie Contract Carpet, Perdue Office Interiors, Rink Design, Gresham Smith & Partners and RS&H just to name a few. Everyone looks forward to the live auction as people pull out their wallets and get ready to spend their money on the fashionable hats!  The top running hat went for over $200 as the winning bid!  The crowd loves a good bidding war. First place prize “Heart Headed” went to Patrons of the Heart. Second place prize (tie) “With a Twist” went to ASD, Inc. Second place prize (tie) “The Veranda” went to Rolland DeValle and Bradley Third Place prize “Lady Laska” went to Blue Cross & Blue Sheild. Great job everyone!  We had quite an amazing talent of participants this year! The Jacksonville City Center created a Cocktail Couture team among local designers and industry professionals who donated countless hours in the planning of the event.  In addition to coordinating all of the nuances of the evening, the team was charged with the solicitation of sponsor donations, the compilation of the designer kits and the encouragement of design teams to enter the competition. Due to the success and notoriety of the last three events, local media publications including Jacksonville Magazine and Arbus were present to help spread the word about our event and IIDA's Jacksonville City Center!  At the end of the night, IIDA was honored to be able to present Dignity U Wear with a check for $5000 from sponsorship monies collected from soliciting the event through our local A&D community.  Fogle Fine Art was our gracious host once again and the evening was complete with hors d'oeuvres, cocktails, excitement, live and silent auctions.  Thanks again to our Cocktail Couture team, our generous sponsors and contributors to the Kentucky Derby Hat competition for supporting us in another successful event!