Fashion week without parties would be like a runway without clothes. The shows may be the official business of the week, but once the lights go down, the calendar fills up with store cocktails, intimate dinners, afterparties, brand activations and blockbuster raves — most of the time, all on the same night. In recent years, however, between the endless paid-for invites and choreographed step and repeats, going out can feel like clocking into another job.
This wasn’t always the case. “When I first started in the fashion week world, afterparties were essentially gatherings for the team after the show, and maybe some of the models and friends of the house,” says Tom Burkitt, former music director of London club Lost, which became a notorious fixture of the city’s nightlife scene before closing down earlier this year. “There wasn’t this whole understanding of ‘a fashion week party’. It was more like, ‘We’ve just done an incredible show, let’s go get pissed.’”
From a brand’s perspective, Burkitt believes the party can offer something the runway cannot, which is perhaps why they’ve ballooned in popularity. “It takes a literal army of people to make these shows happen, and it’s over in 20 minutes. At least with a party, the DJ plays for about an hour minimum,” he says. “Having a place where you can get a thousand people through the door as opposed to just 200 at a fashion show, that exposes you to 10 times as many people posting about the brand, speaking about the brand with their mates at coffee the next morning, or being a part of it.”
Indeed, the sheer proliferation is a sign of how important the fashion party has become. During London Fashion Week this weekend, attendees had the pick of Vegyn and Kelly Lee Owens DJ’ing at the McQueen afterparty hosted in the city’s Standard hotel, or Kim Petras performing for H&M’s red light-laden dance floor, Labrum’s takeover of iconic underground nightclub Fabric, the cult Anthem karaoke night at sultry cocktail bar Moyagi, Patrick McDowell’s birthday-slash-afterparty, and Topshop’s Thameside affair featuring DJ Fat Tony.
Lily McMenamy at the McQueen afterparty at The Standard.
Photo: Courtesy of McQueen
Across the pond, New York also had its fair share of shindigs: Acne Studios hosted a house party with Fcukers’s Jackson on the decks and a stripped-back 070 Shake performance, while at Conner Ives’s party, Lynette Nylander spontaneously took over the DJ booth. There were also big-ticket activations like Bvlgari’s Serpenti Infinito celebration, a new Moncler store opening, Dior’s soirée at Cherry Lane Theater (complete with a performance by cabaret star Justin Vivian) to celebrate its partnership with A24, and a Mythersea party at Café Chelsea.
