I’ve been a style editor for more years than I care to enumerate here, and so I’ve been to a lot of fashion parties, from Milan to Monte Carlo, most of which are as amusing as the act of sticking pins in your eyes, bereft of adequate food & drink, and full of cluster fucks of revolting people looking for photo opps.
Do not believe the photographs and breathless prose in the weekly gossip mags. Fun is not on the agenda. Even if the room is filled, as I have witnessed more times than I can count, with carousels, performing monkeys and semi-naked painted people swinging from the ceiling.
Most fashion parties are positioning events, designed to convey an idea about a brand to the wider public. The attendees are just reductive props in a lavish marketing campaign, however famous, successful or beautiful they may be.
So when a fashion company throws an event that manages to transcend all the marketing and the PR and the hype, (and avoids the use of monkeys or naked people), to become a thoroughly enjoyable, even fabulous evening, I sit up and take notice.
So, dear readers, I give you Mango’s excellent after-show party in Madrid last night which, by dint of a jaw-dropping location on the vast tiered rooftop terraces of the Circulo de Bellas Artes, rivers of Champagne and cocktails, enough food for an army (as, contrary to public perception, fashion editors do quite like to be fed), a brilliant mix of beautiful and normal people, (because beautiful people have an aching need to be observed and normal people like observing them) and a DJ touched by the hand of camp genius, was quite possibly the fun-est event, that I’ve attended in years of doing this job.
Really, the magic formula, as Mango proved, is simple. Forget the tricks, find a great venue where people can breathe and move about, supply lavish food & drink, and get everyone happy and relaxed enough to dance. That’s it.
Right. Photos: one of the terraces of pretty people, lit by large mirrored boxes of church candles.
(Goodness Spanish men are HOT):
The view over central Madrid:
And the food! Passed around by charming & chirpy servers were platters of grilled asparagus, enough spoons of mushroom risotto to feed the whole of Milan Fashion Week, trays & trays of sushi, plump mini burgers, tempura fish, huge legs of jamon, little squares of tortilla, bowls of crudités & cheese dips, endless croquetitas, foie gras, fat prawns…and that’s just what I remember getting my little paws on.
Somewhere in the middle of this eating orgy, Coco Sumner’s band Blame It On Coco played a perfectly harmless open-air set. Then the DJ took over. I couldn’t dance unfortunately, as I prefer being able to breathe/not die, but I perched on the side of the stage with a glass of Champagne, & my tux over my shoulders (bit breezy on the roof), to watch senior editors from some of England’s most illustrious fashion magazines stage a model walk off on the top terrace, whilst gyrating to Pump Up The Jam and mouthing the words to Betty Davis Eyes.
Never let anyone say that the British are backwards in coming forwards.
As I left, I snatched, gently helped myself to mini Mango cupcakes
and reflected that if doing my job was this much fun on a regular basis I would never get any real work done.
LLG is a guest of Mango in Madrid, and is currently suffering from dyspepsia.
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
hahaha! great article! spanish know how to live with style huh?!
Loved it! Sounds a great night. Am now extremely hungry……
Ali xxx
I LOVE Mango! It’s become my absolute favorite place to shop!!! Looks like a fantastic party! I imagine anything or brand associated with Penelope Cruz would have to be nothing short of fabulous and Mango definitely is!
Sounds like an amazing party! Was Scarlett Johansson there?
Well done, Mango! Sounds like it was a super evening. x
So nice to see food/eating having a role in a fashion party!
Yes, but how do you really feel? I LOVE monkeys and would be very happy at a party with monkeys. They’re far nicer than most humans I know. (You crack me up.)
Mmmm, jamon and tortilla, what we lived on in Madrid, home to my husband’s favorite store “The Museum of Ham.”
And I’m eagerly awaiting the MNG by Mango hopefully hitting JCPenney here in Midtown come fall.
Fabulous!
‘beautiful people have an aching need to be observed and normal people like observing them’ – You have a very good understanding of people.
Looks like a beauty of a party… but i can’t help but feel a little disappointed, LLG, do you know about foie gras? It actually is torturing birds.
Sounds like a fantastic party (and fantastic food!). Though I LOVE your description of the Spawn of Sting’s band as perfectly harmless, they couldn’t have done too much to kill a party like this one..
PS: Were the Mango cupcakes actually mango-flavoured? They look yellow, and it would have been awesome if they were (I’m sure they were yummy regardless).
I will trade you your Mango soiree for a day at a Florida fish camp. No deal, you say? I will throw in the monkey that lives at the BF’s hippie compound. No? The hell. Drats, I can’t offer anything else except my appreciation for such a fun post. I love “jest viztin” * with LLG!
Love the Spanish they are so hospitable .. sounds amazing
Oh what a world away from Kampala. I miss glamour but thanks to you I am getting it in mini spoonfuls over here. Do wish I could enjoy the Spanish eye candy, though!
If you weren’t lucky enough to get an invite to the Mango party and you’re in Madrid, you could maybe catch a little of the rooftop magic at The Penthouse rooftop bar at Hotel Me, Plaza Santa Ana. Great views over Madrid as well (and not only for private parties like Circular de Bellas Artes – although you can get a private “booth” which is actually a big bali bed – very nice!).
Ooh sorry about that P.S.
Sigh evidence that glamour and reality can co-exist and be topped off with cupcakes! Hope you have a great stay!
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