london fashion week

Jefferson Hack Raises the Party Bar in London

Untamed parties were not in the cards for London’s fashion crowd last night. After an eventful fourth day at London Fashion Week, where the shows were overshadowed by Alexander McQueen’s memorial service at St Paul’s Cathedral, Dazed & Confused and AnOther founder and editor-in-chief Jefferson Hack’s private dinner at sushi restaurant Sake No Hana provided a sophisticated respite.

The chic soirée celebrated the magazine’s latest issue, whose cover star, Björk, had sung a haunting rendition of Billie Holiday’s hit (and, controversially, Hungarian suicide song) “Gloomy Sunday” at McQueen’s memorial earlier that day. Other dinner guests spanned East London bohemians to rock-and-roll royalty, and included McQueen muse Daphne Guinness, canary-haired designer Pam Hogg, actress Samantha Morton, fashion editor Suzy Menkes, painter Lucian Freud, Love magazine’s Katie Grand, and Jade Jagger, who all tucked into a menu specially created for the occasion and rounded out by sake (natch) and absinthe cocktails.

“I felt like fashion and magazines had become very commercial,” Hack told us at the party, while covertly tapping a cigarette under the table. “I wanted to do something that was about celebrating beauty and the avant-garde. … Björk is a real symbol of that, someone who embraces fashion but is not a product of the fashion industry. She has created a modern femininity, which means that anything is acceptable, and she has a confidence and a grace to wear and celebrate fashion in her own way. That’s the message that I want AnOther to give out to our female readers — not to become a product of fashion, but to make fashion their own.”

Notably, there were no hash brownies on the menu this time. “We had enough hash to get 100 people stoned,” said Hack of the gourmet pot he served at the New York version of the party last week. “It was really beautifully delivered on silver platters. Everybody was told what it was and there was a good forewarning, but I got a lot of compliments back from people who said they had a very mellow evening because of it.”

Perhaps there’s still reason to be cautious of the dessert, then. Or perhaps just of Hack himself. “Maybe you should,” he warned, stubbing his cigarette out in a Champagne glass. “Maybe you should always be cautious whenever you come to an AnOther magazine dinner. You never know who you might bump into, or what you might eat. Or who you might go home with.”

Jefferson Hack Raises the Party Bar in London