In Paris, Anna Wintour and Adam Mosseri Hosted a Fashionable (and Instagrammable) Cocktail Party
Last night in Paris, Vogue and Meta welcomed a handful of editors, designers, and sports heroes to Ralph’s to get to know the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri—and maybe snap a selfie or two.
Standing in the restaurant’s beautifully manicured garden courtyard, Anna Wintour gave a short speech congratulating Mosseri for the platform’s phenomenal growth—2.5 billion users and more than $50 billion in revenue—since he took over the helm in 2018.
On a personal level, she said, “It is my belief that Adam is the first tech industry leader to fully embrace fashion,” adding, “And, by fashion, I mean something far beyond designer hoodies.” She also suggested that Mosseri—who has been known to don a patterned Bode suit or a Wales Bonner tuxedo for the Met Ball—might consider checking in with local talent, and notably the new era about to dawn in Louis Vuitton men’s under Pharrell Williams.
Spotted among the guests were Maria Grazia Chiuri, Julien Dossena, Guillaume Henry, Olivier Rousteing, Ludovic de Saint Sernin, Idris Balogun, Ester Manas, Balthazar Delepierre, Isabel Marant, Iris von Herpen, Zac Posen, Camille Micelli, Victor Weinsanto, Glenn Martens, Arnaud Vaillant, Sebastien Meyer, and Mossi Traoré, and basketball stars Jaylen Brown, Kyle Kuzma, Russell Westbrook, and Serge Ibaka.
For many of those present, before-Instagram times is just another word for the Dark Ages.
“I’m speaking from experience when I say I’m so grateful for being able to share my story on Instagram, because I could have lived in my own little bubble for the rest of my life,” said de Saint-Sernin (315K followers). “Fortunately, there were a whole bunch of people out there who felt the way I did, and that’s how I discovered my community.”
“I’m on it all day, every day,” offered Kuzma (4.9M), who flew to Paris for shows at Vuitton, Kenzo, Givenchy, and Rick Owens. Quipped Westbrook (22.5M), “My kids run mine now.”
Dossena (64.7K) shared his latest discoveries—the Japanese illustrator Kohei Ohmori and author Nicolas Mathieu, winner of the 2018 Goncourt prize—before ducking out for “a pretty late night” in the Jean Paul Gaultier atelier.
“I think this space alone holds some of the most creative minds on Instagram,” offered Eva Chen (2.4M), Instagram’s director of fashion partnerships.
“We definitely see that the creative directors who have the most success on Instagram are the ones who share their personal perspective and let themselves be vulnerable—like Olivier [Rousteing)—and show the 360° of their creation. It’s inspiring to me to see them take the reins of their narrative. Fashion people, after all, love the word storytelling—and what is Instagram besides storytelling?”
Rousteing, for his part, reckons he spends five hours a day on the platform—“but I have very long days,” he noted. “A life without Instagram is not my life.”
“We’ve always followed this idea of being a platform for creativity, and that’s meant we’ve been lucky enough to be the platform of choice for a lot of creative communities,” offered Mosseri (2.1M) as many in the crowd drifted out and over toward the spectacle on the Pont Neuf.
“That’s why I think fashion has continually been so successful, and we just want to do everything we can to continue to nurture and support that.”
Informal gatherings like tonight’s cocktail, he noted, are definitely part of the picture.
1/18Devyn Garcia, Yumi Nu
2/18Alphonse Maitre Pierre, Thebe Magugu