The Plein Experience - NYC Edition

Listen, I’m not a fashion critic nor do I pretend to be. I interview celebrities and write about parties; you know, the fun stuff. I say that because that’s through the lens that I write about fashion shows, because in all honesty, they’ve become sort of a party in their own right. Philipp Plein is a prime example of this.

I don’t think anyone who attended last night’s show expected anything less than an over the top spectacle, and those who didn’t expect that clearly aren’t familiar with Mr. Plein’s body of work. “I told you that it would be an EXPERIENCE,” an exhausted publicist told me outside of the New York Public Library, the iconic New York venue that played host to last night’s show. Of course there were crowds of people outside trying to get in, but again, that was to be expected as the scene outside a show is always crazy and hectic. Of course the show started late, they always do (granted an hour and fifteen minutes is a bit excessive but honestly it’s not like anyone had a show after and most people were staying for the after party ANYWAY.)

Mr. Plein set out with a very clear goal in his NYFW debut and that was to “Make New York Fashion Week Great Again” and for that he recruited not just models to walk in his show, but some pop culture icons. Think Pete Wentz, Alec Monopoly, Fetty Wap, Yung Thug, Desiigner, Sofia Richie, Will Peltz, Anwar Hadid, and recent Super Bowl winner Danny Amendola. The show launched with a performance by legendary New York rapper Nas and then moved right into a performance by rock and rollers The Kills.

From an actual aesthetic standpoint, the clothing itself was mixed: A lot of leather, a lot of studs and even some things with a lot of embellishment. But again, that is exactly Mr. Plein’s style. He didn’t do anything last night that he hasn’t done in the past, which is to say he paraded his friends down the runway and sat them in the front row for a hell of a party. As soon as the show was over VIPs that included Kylie Jenner, Tyga, Victor Cruz, Shay Mitchell, Madonna, Fat Joe, and literally any other famous person in NY, went upstairs for a private dinner and the rest of us went in to see The Martinez Brothers for a Circo Loco themed party in the library’s first floor. Guests literally drove around in bumper cars and ate cotton candy while dancing all night so overall, how bad of a time could people have really had? It’s impossible to be annoyed when you have cotton candy and vodka. Impossible.