The Tamesis
On Friday night, a large number of fans camped out under the bright lights next to Madame Tussauds on 42nd Street in Times Square. It’s unclear exactly who they’re waiting for. but fashion magazine The guest list for the annual First Friday party – the quintessential kickoff to Met Gala weekend – will ensure they won’t be disappointed. Upon arrival, those who were whisked through security were startled to see Beyoncé greeting them wearing a silver crown. This would be the first of many nighttime scares in the wax museum room.
The cocktail party, hosted by Chloe Malle, Teyana Taylor and Simone Ashley, was a welcome excuse for most people to visit this tacky tourist attraction for the first time. “I’ve definitely not been here — I mean, none of us have been here,” Michael Kors, the most New York-style of all New York designers, said in the elevator.
After checking their coats under the watchful eye of a fake Annie Leibovitz, a group of designers, models, photographers, stylists and editors chatted about their weekend plans. Baz Luhrmann posed for friends with Leo DiCaprio’s doppelgänger, Gabbriette and Sombr took turns posing under the Timothée Chalamet twins’ umbrellas, and Paloma Elsesser Rush to the Mariah Carey lookalike sitting on a Christmas-style backdrop. Meanwhile, Kris Jenner and Kendall Jenner, Brad Pitt, Alicia Keys, Rihanna and Kim Kardashian looked on, wearing replicas of Met Gala outfits from yesteryear.
In honor of the Costume Institute exhibition about to explore how the human form is depicted and depicted through the lens of fashion, the dress code for the evening was Body, body, body. Nina Dobrev echoed this theme in a Gabriela Hearst fishnet sweater. Chloe Malle wore McQueen’s corset line, Irina Shayk wore the sculptural Issey Miyake, and Georgina Rodriguez wore the bondage-inspired Ludovic de Saint Sernin, which coincidentally was modeled after Paloma Elsesser on the show.
As for Elsesser, she summed up the look of Comme des Garçons’ Spring 1997 collection — aka the seminal “bumps and bumps.” Body meets dress, dress meets body collect. “I just put it in my closet; I don’t even have to find anything,” the supermodel laughed. besides trompe l’oeil and bags galore, while TV personality Ciara Miller opted for something sparkly and sheer. Tanner Fletcher writer Sarah Hoover reunited with the designers and joked she had to call three Ubers before she could fit her hoop skirt into it.
Cocktails at the bar also pay homage to the dress code, with the Waisted Cosmos and Body Electric cocktails. While everyone was talking about Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Kitchen finally opening in New York, partygoers were more than willing to try everything on the menu as trays of healthy options were passed around. With drinks and snacks in hand, guests also wandered the seventh-floor hallways to explore the Google Try-On activation, which uses artificial intelligence to see how they would look in classic couture and runway shows.
As the party winds down, rumors begin to emerge about karaoke—and in Times Square! For everyone else, it’s time to go home and get some beauty sleep. After all, fashion’s biggest night is just hours away.
The Vogue First Friday Party is hosted by Google and Uber Eats, with thanks to the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Center.
