Vogue By Marc Jacobs: Inside Last Night’s Celebration for the December Issue Starring Kaia Gerber

It’s rare that an issue of Vogue gets its own release party, but Vogue’s December 2024 issue isn’t just any issue: It was orchestrated by none other than Marc Jacobs, the first-ever guest editor of Vogue US. Plus, its cover star, Kaia Gerber, was rendered in two striking ways (in a photograph by Steven Meisel and a painted portrait by Anna Weyant), Jacobs’s Frank Lloyd Wright home was photographed by Gregory Crewdson, and the entire magazine culminates with a regal portrait of a Brussels griffon (the latest Dogue—IYKYK) wearing a Chanel Haute Joaillerie bracelet as a choker. A party was in order!

“I can t believe I m saying this, but this is my fourth American Vogue cover, and I have to tell you, it gets more special every time,” Gerber told the room, which was filled with many of the bold-named collaborators who lent their time, words, camera lenses, and faces (Grace Coddington, Edith Zimmerman, Dana Spiotta, Pat McGrath, Gregory Crewdson, and Alastair McKimm among them) to the latest issue. Indeed, the party itself, held at the library-themed bar Bibliotheque on Mercer Street, served as an extension of the themes put forth in the magazine’s pages—the power of a good book, in particular (Gerber runs Library Science, an online book club, with her good friend Alyssa Reeder).

“Being in a career where you re often looked at and not seen, to be seen in this way by you, Marc; by you, Anna; and by Dana means so much,” Gerber continued. “And I also think in a world right now where we’re all kind of looking at each other and pointing at each other, I really just want to remind everyone to try and see each other a bit more.” She went on to read an excerpt from a letter written by Martha Graham to Agnes De Mille.

Then, it was Jacobs’s turn to speak. “I m going to try to juggle a broken microphone and long nails,” he joked, his viral talons larger than life, before sharing a poignant passage from Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Letters to a Young Poet.”

During the short event—which also saw Jacobs’s manicure wielding a Sharpie to sign December issues with Gerber—guests gathered, likely for the first time since last week’s election, for a moment of levity and beauty. As for the fits? Prints and looks from Marc Jacobs seasons past were scattered around the space, including on Colby Mugrabi, who sported the Minnie Mouse-like eyes worn by Gerber in the issue. “She even brought double-stick tape for them!,” exclaimed Lazaro Hernandez, who had confiscated the roll of adhesive to show to Jacobs as proof.

With remarks from a few of Vogue’s top editors, the crowd was also treated to a boisterous post-mortem of the issue—which started with Wintour offering Jacobs the guest-editing gig over lunch at Balthazar.

“We showed Anna the layouts that Marc wanted, which were not the layouts she wanted, and Anna uttered the immortal words: ‘Marc doesn’t like to hear the word no, and neither do I,’” Virginia Smith, Vogue’s global head of fashion network, told the room.

Of finalizing the cover, Taylor Antrim, the global network lead US deputy editor, added, “Marc quizzed me about all of my headlines and rewrote them all—and they were better.”

Global creative director Raúl Martinez (who revealed to the room that he and Jacobs go all the way back to their high school gym class in Teaneck, New Jersey) recalled the making of one of the stand-out features in the issue, a dance portfolio starring the season’s most energetic looks on a range of models and dancers from all disciplines. “Picture this,” Martinez said, “a Saturday, 11 o clock in the morning, Stage C, Pier 59, and a complete rave was happening—to the point that some of us got some very strange flashbacks.”

Jacobs then wrapped up the cocktail party thus: “Anna, thank you for your loyalty, your trust, and your friendship. It s a genuine privilege to have you in my life—and to now call you my colleague.” With that, it was time for dinner…back at Balthazar, where it all began.