John Demsey Drew Elliott’s Halloween Party Lured 200 Club Kids to The Upper East Side 

The Upper East Side is probably the last place one might expect to see a crew of 200 club kids en masse and dressed in their most eccentric garb—let alone inside the ornate home of Estée Lauder Executive Group President, John Demsey. But in the name of Halloween, and the appointment of Drew Elliott as the new Creative Director of MAC Cosmetics, there they were, filling every nook of the townhouse and artfully maneuvering so as not to touch the walls, covered floor-to-ceiling with priceless artwork.

“I’ve known Drew since he was a club kid,” Demsey told Vogue while we noshed on miniature grilled cheeses. “I had an idea of what I was getting into when I saw Drew’s party list. They were all just listed as first names like Amanda and Susanne, and the rest came right along with it.”

Nightlife fixtures Amanda Lepore and Susanne Bartsch were indeed present, along with a merry band of fans that included Allison Sarofim, who recycled a look from her own rollicking Halloween party over the weekend; Nicola Formichetti; Jordan Roth, who admitted that over-the-top getups were an everyday occurrence for him; and many other partygoers. “I feel like I do Halloween all year,” Roth told us, sporting a T-shirt embellished with strands of dangling crystals by Area. “So, for me, this is just another Tuesday.”

And as it was a MAC celebration, a big piece of the puzzle for everyone’s ensemble was makeup. For Elliott, who started his new role just one day earlier, he opted to paint his face with spots evoking a Ruby Woo and Yayoi Kusama–inspired jester. “Can you imagine starting a new job at MAC, and your first day is Halloween?” he posited. “It’s kind of amazing. It’s fun to see behind-the-scenes of a brand I’ve loved since I was little.”

He stood alongside Boy George, whose signature chapeau could be seen parting the seas as he made his way through the room. “There are no Boy George lookalikes tonight, but definitely Boy George think-a-likes who just get it,” he told us. “You look around this room, and everyone just gets it. When it comes to makeup, people have so much choice now. We used to really have to struggle, but you can see it with all of the amazing makeup looks that people do now. We used to have to steal our mother’s makeup!”