Videography by Vlada Karpovich | Music by Vlad Krotov
Unlock the ultimate year of refinement and inspiration with Ladies of Leisure. Engage in expertly curated challenges, indulge in elegance, and unite with like-minded women. Enjoy a seasonal soirée and start your local chapter today!
🌙 Evenings with E.V.E.
Come dressed for culture, not chores.
Now gathering: women of style, story, and sparkle! Arbor of the Vine has created a new cultural circle with Echoes & Vine Magazine for women who long for elegance and linger in conversation.
Evenings with E.V.E. is a private assembly of Echoes & Vine Enthusiasts: readers, aesthetes, and seekers gathering monthly for curated experiences in:
🕯 Literature
🕯 Leisure
🕯 Libations
Think salon meets soirée—held in thoughtful spaces, with friendly ladies over prosecco, performance, or prose.
Our gatherings are seasonal, intimate, and rooted in culture. Whether it’s a vintage film screening, a night at the theatre, the corner table at a jazz café, a docent-led tour, or a self-guided city walk—we explore overlooked splendor dressed in our best, because when we’re together, we are the special occasion.
If it’s two friends or twelve, hosting is up to you. Use the following 'Ladies of Leisure' Events Guide to plan, invite, and create your own local chapter gatherings.
💬 Want to share your event with the Arbor of the Vine community?
Join the Founders Circle and post your gatherings in Grace’s Subscriber Chat. We’d love to see what you're planning.
📅 For more event ideas and inspiration, browse our living calendar:
📍Check out our curated list of hidden gems, local advice, and personal reviews!
💄Evenings with E.V.E. is your new favorite excuse to dress up for ladies night.
August:
Seducing Speakeasies
Reviving Midnight Mystique with Gin and Jazz
Seducing Speakeasies revives the spirit of jazz lounges with feminine mystique, inviting modern goddesses to play, sip, sway, and revive the alluring aspects of womanhood. This curated experience honors the divine feminine through the roaring twenties—glamour, botanical cocktails, and enchanting diversions designed for delight, not disclosure. From exploring historical context to modern rebranding, guests will find themselves intoxicated without ever straying into introspective depths better left for more sobering conversation.
The door opens. Her silhouette frames the threshold, haloed by streetlight and evening perfume. Inside, the room shifts its gaze, if only for a moment. The bar glows amber and mahogany; shadows curl beneath velvet banquettes, where laughter drapes itself gracefully between three women who wear their wit as well as their silk. A string of diamonds and pearls catches the light as she approaches.
She’s here to meet her companions—elegant, brilliant, unbothered. They’re already gathered; their presence equally undeniable. There is no pretense. No performance. Just the natural convergence of women who know exactly who they are.
They hand her a menu; it has changed for the occasion. The Gin Rickey now answers to Velvet Ascension. The Tom Collins, Oracle’s Whisper. Behind each new name lies something abstract, intangible. A celestial not explained, only felt. No drink here is a symbol of the patriarch; each glass is laced with the language of intuition and allure. It is not the name that matters; it’s the perception behind it.
Centuries of expectations, of being called, summoned—have been liquidated. Tonight, presence arrives.
Theme: 1920s Jazz Lounge + Mystic Feminine Energy
Location: Jazz café or hotel lounge bar with Art Deco interiors
Instructions:
1. Before arrival, guests research their favorite gin, zero-alcohol gin, or gin-based cocktail/mocktail.
2. Women’s Moment in History Explored
Guests will research how women during the 1920s expressed their aura and feminine energy compared to other decades.
Based on research findings, use this as inspiration to rename your favorite cocktail to one of empowerment with mystic, feminine energy.
3. Please submit your original cocktail name and creative new name to the hostess at least 48 hours prior to the event.
As host, create a fun matching game where guests try to pair original drinks with their creatively renamed versions.
Guests should reveal the inspiration behind their name after everyone has responded.
Why It Resonates:
Mystique is perceived like a scent, noticed for its presence, remembered because of its influence. This evening is to embody one’s own allure, like the women who didn’t wait for permission to be witnessed. This activity doesn’t ask you to perform the past; it invites you to summon it through conviction. You’ve studied the era, traced her steps, and distilled her presence into modern terms.
Tips:
Budget: Consider wearing what you already own to look the part: e.g., style your hair in a vintage updo, create a smokey eye, and blend your perfumes to create something unique and unfamiliar.
Sustainable: Guests may choose traditional accessories from secondhand stores: e.g., 1920s attire, costume jewelry, feather headpieces, etc.
Luxury: Be your own glam squad!
Gather at the host's home a few hours before going out.
Create a playlist of music from the era.
Prepare hors d'oeuvres on a decorated, self-serve bar with classic beverages (or hire a mixologist for a few hours).
Book a private swing or burlesque instructor to teach an in-home class.
Hire a local makeup artist for professional guidance.
Set up a seated beauty bar with mirrors, trays of antique accessories, and a selection of perfumes.
Virtual Version:
1. Begin by guiding guests through the cocktail or mocktail ritual using the ingredients from their mailed kits. Encourage them to select their botanicals with care, making note of scent, color, and mood.
2. As drinks are assembled, introduce a brief reflection on the feminine presence of the 1920s: how women expressed power, sensuality, and independence through their dress, gestures, and social rituals, particularly in contrast to earlier or later decades.
3. Once each guest has finished their drink, invite them to give it a name—one that evokes mystique, confidence, or inner knowing. It need not explain her, only reflect her.
4. After all names are shared, guests will vote for the most captivating one. The winning name will be honored as the evening’s “Drink Special.”
Consider creating an anonymous poll on your chat platform.
Activity Kits to Mail Ahead:
Mini gin sampler & botanical kit
Mocktail versions can be used by substituting gin with zero-alcohol gin, flavored tonics, herbs, and syrups from local markets.
The 1920s unveiled women through gesture, gaze, and clandestine rooms they weren’t supposed to enter. They gathered, glass in hand, and danced anyway. These woman knew precisely what they were doing when they walked through that door, and so do you. August’s Seasonal Soirée is not about remaking history or even reclaiming it. It is about remembering what they had, we have never lost.
Expect more exploration, more engagement, and more entertainment coming soon!
Unlock the ultimate year of refinement and inspiration with Ladies of Leisure.
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