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Last night GQ and the CFDA hosted an ultra-packed party at New York's hipper-than-thou Ace Hotel celebrating the Best New Menswear Designers in America nominees. They included: Tailored, prep-inflected, dandy-inspired modernized-traditionalism by Gant by Michael Bastian, Riviera Club, Miller's Oath and Patrik Ervell; the black and the hip from T by Alexander Wang; and screen-printed jersey surfwear by the Warriors of Radness.
In addition to the nominated designers and their crews; the judging panel (Tommy Hilfiger included); the previously nominated (Billy Reid, Simon Spurr, Robert Geller, the boys behind Shipley & Halmos and Band of Outsiders and J.Crew); and the bold-faced names of editorial and all the major department stores; the party attracted Kanye West, Kid Cudi, a very dressed-down Penn Badgley, Jessica Alba and Aziz Ansari—who seemed absolutely delighted and is quite small.
The Ace's lobby was transformed with a series of lighting rigs and centralized groupings of existing furniture on which six models representing each line posed for the full two hours. The set-up allowed the very, very long list of guests to travel along the full perimeter of the room—having access to a beer bar, a full bar, a variety of butlered-around nibbles, a very busy coat check. Fabulous in theory—difficult in reality: There were ten million people there, and they definitely started to get punchy! The dark northeastern corner was the safest bet for reunitings, phone calls, angsty tweets or a break from the shoving—it was also a good spot to watch the half-shirtless and variously-tattooed Warriors of Radness crew (which proved an unsurprisingly popular pastime for guests).
· Who Will Be the Best New Menswear Designer in America? Meet the Contestants! [GQ]
· The Best New Menswear Designers in America [GQ]
· All fashion week coverage [Racked]
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