After Hedi Slimane’s Saint Laurent runway, a runaway concert
Musicians Beck in black tie, Justin Bieber, Joan Jett and Mark Ronson at the Saint Laurent fashion show by Hedi Slimane at the Hollywood Palladium.
Sure, the after-party for the Saint Laurent fashion show at the Hollywood Palladium might become a fleeting memory for some during this busy season of red carpets, fashion shows and party after party, but it was the kind of epic bash — a happening, really — that bears rehashing especially if you weren’t able to attend.
The fashion show itself, which we told you about last week, was Saint Laurent creative director Hedi Slimane’s love letter to his adopted hometown — that being L.A. It marked the first time the storied French luxury brand had presented its men’s and women’s collections here, and the event was a fitting tribute to L.A.’s music scene.
Which is why, just minutes after the last of the models cleared the venue’s runway in the round, black curtains around the periphery of the Palladium were pulled back to reveal the kind of food stands you might find at a ‘70s music festival — rectangular wooden signs that read “Burgers & Fries” and “Tacos,” framed in light bulbs. The staff at open bars on opposite ends of the space were lining up beer cups as partygoers bellied up. Many had arrived after the fashion show had wrapped, others changing into Coachella-appropriate garb — flowing dresses and robes, Day-Glo face paint, propeller beanies and spirit hoods. One man accessorized with a string tie that included two very realistic-looking severed fingers.
Within 30 minutes, the piped-in background music gave way to live music, and the crowd started bouncing and whirling around the room. By the time we finished filing our show coverage on a smartphone (Work comes first!), Beck had taken the stage at the Sunset Boulevard venue and was performing an enthusiastic version of “Devil’s Haircut.”
“Hedi asked us to come down and make some noisy music,” he said before returning to that very task. At one point, the audience in front of the stage improvised a mosh pit, which resulted in security officers’ hasty removal of what appeared to be an inebriated reveler. (We’re guessing that marks some kind of fashion show after-party first.)
Beck was followed to the stage by Joan Jett and her band.
“We’re the Blackhearts and we’re from New York City,” she said, “and I just want to thank Hedi for making such beautiful clothes.”
With that she launched into a half-hour set of songs such as “Bad Reputation” (which included Jett, guitar in hand, briefly grinding against a stage-right stripper pole) and “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll.”
We cut out of the Palladium after Joan Jett & the Blackhearts’ set wrapped, sometime just after midnight. For the party people, the night was barely getting started.
According to a post-event release, about a dozen music acts were scheduled to appear including Cherry Glazerr, Curtis Harding, No Parents, Bleached and the Mystic Braves.
On the way out, we grabbed one of the freebie buttons that filled bowls scattered around the venue. They looked like the old-school, stamped-metal buttons that might have shown fealty to a favorite band in the ‘70s, except this one read, “Saint Laurent at the Palladium,” and another was printed with a palm tree design (plucked from 18-year-old artist Lucia Santina Ribisi’s stage backdrop artwork) and the words “The Saint Laurent Los Angeles Show February 10th 2016.”
After a spectacle like this one, we love rock ‘n’ roll, indeed.
