At New York Fashion Week, Rodarte Celebrated Its Fall 2020 Collection—And Kate Mulleavy’s Birthday

There was plenty to celebrate at Rodarte’s New York Fashion Week dinner. The most obvious cause was Kate and Laura Mulleavy’s fall 2020 collection, which drew on the haunting beauty of Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula. But the other big celebration was Kate’s birthday, which coincided with the day of their show and after-party.

To mark both occasions, Rodarte invited a small cluster of their closest friends, muses, and supporters for dinner at Spring Place. If the balloons read “birthday,” the bottomless Champagne set the fashion-event scene. Guests in Rodarte’s voluminous ruffle dresses certainly helped set a festive mood too, with Beanie Feldstein and Zazie Beetz turning up in some of the Mulleavy’s most resplendent frocks.

As for the designers, they stuck with their signature monochrome palette: Laura in black and Kate in a blush shade of pink. The look, Kate laughed, was not an intentional birthday ensemble, but the result of haphazard packing and borrowing some items from a friend, though we’d say it worked out great—not that the sisters were much worried about their own outfits. After weeks of putting together a collection of hand-painted dresses and live orchid boas, they were ready to party. “I just feel so happy,” Laura said. “I felt excited about the show, usually you feel nervous, or so worried something is going to go wrong. This one, I just felt excited.”

After the intimate dinner, the group headed to Ray’s newly opened basement haunt to really celebrate—and that’s where this party report ends, because what happens in Ray’s stays in Ray’s.