Sometimes fate generously hands you one of those to-hell-with-it nights where there’s no excuse not to party like there’s no tomorrow. Last night was most definitely not that night. After all, it was only a few sundowns since New Year’s Eve. Plus this was the opening shebang to mark the start of London Fashion Week Men s and an ensuing season of masculine shows that lasts until February.
Yes, Dame Vivienne Westwood—who cohosted the party with the British Fashion Council—rolled up to the venerable Soho restaurant Quo Vadis wearing a crown and a frisky mien that suggested revelry was on her agenda. Her husband, intellectual Tyrolean man-mountain Andreas Kronthaler, was saturated with positive, gung-ho spirit as he contemplated the brand’s return to the London menswear calendar with its co-ed show next Monday.
The wise only pretended to sip their drinks. Dylan Jones, the British GQ editor and driving force behind the London menswear shows, slipped silkily in, then almost immediately out, of the party—cannily conserving his energy for the long trek ahead. Some rashly lingered longer, the dashingly moustachioed Hu Bing, Pam Hogg, Doina Ciobanu, Betty Bachz, Raye, and Eric Underwood were amongst them. Soon enough, though, they slipped into the night.