Boardman. (Marc Dimov/PatrickMcMullan)
The guests at Longchamp and Paper Magazine’s Celebrate Spring were all dressed to the nines, including a young man wearing sequined Mickey Mouse ears and a tall blonde woman whose stole was decorated with large three-dimensional teddy bears formed of golden beads.
“This party has everything: booze, snacks, girls taking their clothes off!” said a guest to her snickering friends.
We saw no evidence of girls taking their clothes off, and worried that our showing up fashionably late (our editor had left us to the wolves) had made us miss it. But then Paper Magazine’s fashion editor Martha Violante stood up on the modeling platform and pulled off a model’s dress and shoes, until the model stood on display wearing nothing but a nude jumpsuit. The model lifted up her arms and held out her feet one by one as Ms. Violante, who’s about a third the model’s height, dressed her in a new outfit.
“We thought it would be a good idea to see the behind-the-scenes in front of the scenes, and show how we decide what looks cool,” said Ms. Violante.
“Do you think they’re embarrassed?” We were curious, and thus looked up.
“They’re professionals,” she said.
DJ Steven Rojas’s booth was positioned halfway up Longchamp Soho’s elaborate staircase, which looked like a waterfall made of wood and metal, but he wasn’t upset about missing the action of the party upstairs.
“I know half these people, so I’ll just socialize later,” he said.
We found self-proclaimed “bag hag” Mickey Boardman giving fashion advice. (“Love it!” he said of a red satchel that was being swung around by a young man clad entirely in leather. “But maybe in a different color.”) He admitted to being amused by the quick-change models.
“I love that panty hose jumpsuit thing they’re wearing,” Mr. Boardman said. “They’re very un-smiley models, but the clothes are fun. You know we all have such short attention spans now, so it’s fun to turn away to get a Coca Cola, and when you turn back, they’re in a different outfit.”
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