party report

Purple Magazine Dinner Results in Nudity, Hot-Wax Pouring

A party for Purple magazine wouldn’t be complete without some nakedness, an instance of which didn’t seem to disrupt last night’s dinner at Paul Sevigny and Nur Khan’s new restaurant, Kenmare. When a young man named Tristan approached the booth where we were sitting with Tallulah Harlech and Jen Brill, he was initially denied the cigarette he had requested — until he offered to barter for it by stripping. Egged on by Harlech, he removed his shirt and dripped hot wax onto his chest from a nearby candle, Body of Evidence–style. “No! No! You’ll hurt yourself!” protested Brill while Harlech cackled and encouraged him to continue. He then unbuckled his belt and took off his pants. And then … well, it went downhill from there, with more wax pouring. (“Hot balls,” Brill commented later when asked for her description of the scene.) After a few moments of nude dancing and posing, the gentleman received his prize: Brill handed over her nearly finished cigarette. “I take it all back! I take it all back!” she exclaimed. “That was an inspiration. He really wanted my cigarette!” Sadly, after all his hard work, Tristan inserted the cigarette into his mouth backwards, not only extinguishing it but burning his mouth in the process, which in turn required some Champagne-chugging.

Despite squeals from our booth, nearby diners were relatively unperturbed by the display. “It’s Purple,” shrugged one guest. “People could be dancing on tables naked, and everyone would be like, ‘Meh.’” At the other corner of the room, things were downright low-key. Leelee Sobieski, who left early to go home to her 2-month-old daughter, was wearing a pair of very sturdy-looking hiking boots under the advisement of her fiancé, Adam Kimmel: “It’s really because there’s so much milk in my boobs, I might topple over. He gave me the hiking boots to keep me firmly planted on the ground,” she explained.
 
Chloë Sevigny, who was sitting in a booth adjacent to Terry Richardson and Jared Leto, described her week as “pretty mellow,” and chatted about her new line for Opening Ceremony, which will come out next spring. “It’s kind of a mix-and-match situation, but only for girls. And we’re doing — hopefully — a collaboration with NaNa shoes.” Are there any designs they’ve settled on yet? “There’s, like, a motorcycle boot that’s a clog, and … I don’t know, so many good ones. We only want to do four, but we like so many that we’re having a really hard time narrowing it down,” she said.
 
A few tables over, Daphne Guinness needed some assistance rolling up the veil over her face so that she could ravenously devour Kenmare chef Joey Campanaro’s grilled swordfish. Meanwhile, photographer David LaChappelle announced his new career: modeling, which he tried for the first time on Friday in Naomi Campbell’s Fashion for Relief show to benefit Haiti. “I found my calling on the runway,” he explained dramatically. “I didn’t eat for two days before the show. Nothing. I had a spoonful of yogurt. Bethann Hardison is my agent now, she’s representing me and Tyson Beckford. I’m special bookings only. I really enjoyed myself so much on the runway that I really think I’m going to pursue it.” Who would he want to model for? “Whoever would hire me … the right designers, the right people.” His face took on a faraway look as he recounted his recent experience on the catwalk, during which he envisioned “a stairway to heaven.”

Purple Magazine Dinner Results in Nudity, Hot-Wax Pouring