“New York Is So Back!” Cole Escola On Their Runway Debut

Photo: Cole Escola / Courtesy of Cole Escola

Cole Escola had a busy New York Fashion Week. First came their turn as co-host at Thom Browne’s spring 2025 dinner, where they sat with Patti LuPone and Martha Stewart and cuddled Hector Browne—well, the handbag version—all night long. And then came their debut on the catwalk yesterday at the Standard Hotel in Meatpacking District, where they closed Presley Oldham’s first-ever runway show wearing hundreds of tiny beaded flowers.

“I feel stunning. It’s heavy, but I’m strapped in,” Escola, the star and playwright of the Broadway hit “Oh, Mary!” said after the show, standing on a pedestal when the salon-style catwalk turned into an exhibition. “You know, Marlene Dietrich wore a bugle beaded gown for her one woman Broadway show,” they added, “so this feels like tradition of the same heavy beads for Broadway,” they continued, before taking the obvious punchline: “It’s heavy beads for a broad way.”

Dietrich did indeed wear a beaded gown for her 1967 one-woman show on Broadway. It was a frock designed by the legendary costume designer Edith Head, who won a record eight Academy Awards for Best Costume Design between 1949 and 1973. Legend goes—and don’t ask me how I know this—that it weighed 19 pounds. But if the Marlene could do it, then so can Escola.

“When Presley asked me to be in their show I said yes, but I didn’t realize it was an actual fashion show, like, New York Fashion Week,” they said, “but now we’re here and I love it, it’s fun.” Escola met Presley in classic New York manner through two New York icons: the designer’s uncle, Todd Oldham, who they first met via Todd’s close friend, Amy Sedaris. “Yes, it only gets better!” they laughed, “and without Amy, none of us would be here.”

“This is all just icing,” said Escola of what it’s been like to become a part of Fashion Week this season after “Oh, Mary!” hit big on Broadway following a run at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. Would they ever walk another show? “If it was for someone fun! I don’t want to feel intimidated.”

With Escola on the runways and designers like Oldham following the tradition set by those before him, including his uncle, of hosting shows with and for your friends and family, of having fun with fashion and using it to merge worlds, there’s only one thing left to say: New York is so back. “New York is so back, isn’t it?,” said Escola, “that’s it, that’s the headline!”

Scroll through for a photo diary of Cole Escola’s runway debut.