Last night, young American designers met their muses at the newly re-opened Ritz in Paris.
"It s kind of awesome," mused a Jonathan Simkhai-sporting Taylor Hill by the baby grand in the foyer off the Salon d’Eté. "I ve been coming to Paris for a very long time now and it s where my career started growing. It s where I first started working with American Vogue. And it s super special to me because it s the city where it all began."
The event, held with Tumi and hosted by Hill, Vogue s Selby Drummond and Tumi s creative director Michael Petry, brought together the likes of Gigi Hadid, Imaan Hammam, Anna Cleveland, and Fernanda Ly for a champagne-filled evening under the Ritz s rose crystal chandeliers. They were all toasting 2016 s batch of CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalists, who came to present their Spring 2017 collections in the Americans in Paris showroom this week.
Looking across the storied room, one could see CG s Chris Gelinas mingling with Brother Vellies s Aurora James, Simkhai chatting with Hill and Thaddeus O Neil, and Brandon Maxwell sweeping in with his date Riley Montana. ("We took the plane here together," said Maxwell, with Montana adding, "And I watched him sleep the entire time!")
Hadid was dressed in a beaded Adam Selman number that seemed straight out of Studio 54. "It s so fun,” she said. “When I move, [the dress] lights up." The twinkling didn’t only come from her dress. One couldn’t help but be dazzled at the thought of the many literary icons—from Jean-Paul Sartre to Marcel Proust to Oscar Wilde—who made the hotel such a legendary social and intellectual hub.
"I love it so much," Ryan Roche said about reveling in one of Hemingway’s favorite haunts. “It s really authentic.” Roche—who dressed Lexi Boling, Lindsey Wixson, and her dear friend James in her signature knits—was in a warm and affectionate mood. “The love we have for each other within the CFDA is so genuine. It s all my closest friends. We re all working together and we re all supporting each other."
Gigi Burris, seated in a crimson-and-amber velvet armchair, summed up what was so exceptional about the evening. "We get to see each other all the time in New York City, but there s something really special about getting together as Americans in Paris.”