During fashion month, the industry gathers at a familiar circuit of brand dinners, afterparties, and late-night events. From The Standard’s rooftops to Caviar Kaspia’s dining room, a handful of venues appear on repeat — season after season, city after city.
The repetition is rarely accidental. What defines a venue’s proximity to fashion typically comes down to a combination of cultural credibility, operational reliability, and tightly held relationships. Some venues inherit their status through decades of relationships with designers and tastemakers; others create it intentionally through community-building and cultural programming.
How this manifests differs greatly depending on the city and by a venue’s history. New York-based PR agency founder Gia Kuan says New York tends to be more “scene-driven”, which allows new spaces like Downtown Manhattan “clubstraunts” People’s and Jean’s to gain traction through mystique and word-of-mouth. Paris and Milan are more rooted in history. For instance, Caviar Kaspia — known for its signature caviar baked potato — opened in Paris in 1927, and has long attracted figures across fashion, art and culture, from Yves Saint Laurent and Valentino Garavani to Karl Lagerfeld and Tom Ford; Sant Ambroeus opened in 1936 in Milan, and has since become an unofficial meeting point for the city’s fashion establishment, including Miuccia Prada, Giorgio Armani and Donatella Versace, and has hosted events with Saint Laurent, Ferragamo, Zegna, Chanel, Balenciaga and more in the past year. Between those poles sit global lifestyle players like The Standard (which has hotels in major fashion capitals such as London and New York) that blend institutional scale with cultural programming.
Caviar Kaspia.Photo: Courtesy of Caviar Kaspia
“Hospitality has shifted from a business standpoint, where margins have gotten razor thin so you have to be very proactive,” says Frankie Carattini, head of events and creative director of People’s, which opened at the end of 2024 and has hosted events from Met Gala afterparties to events for Anna Sui, Thom Browne and Maison Margiela. “People’s feels like a crazy out-of-control environment. But in reality, it’s hyper-controlled and hyper-curated.”
For brands, securing a buzzy event venue is both about marketing and relationship management. The right setting can amplify a brand’s cultural positioning by aligning it with a certain crowd, neighborhood or aesthetic, while exclusive dinners and parties double as VIC clienteling moments, a growing priority for luxury labels focusing on top spenders.
Industry observers say what separates lasting fashion venues from fleeting hotspots is cultural literacy. “A fashion favorite venue understands that it’s part of the brand narrative and not just the backdrop,” says Kuan. “They know how to hold a room of editors, designers, and artists without feeling try-hard. It’s about atmosphere, discretion, and design integrity — but also understanding how fashion actually operates.”
Why fashion proximity matters
For hospitality brands, fashion affiliation brings cultural legitimacy and global visibility. “When people whose tastes and perspectives carry influence have a great experience, that energy travels quickly and creates lasting credibility for the venue,” says Kathryn Florada, events director at Jean’s restaurant and club in New York, which has hosted Rihanna and A$AP Rocky’s Met Gala afterparty, Louboutin and GQ’s New York Fashion Week event, Willy Chavarria’s CFDA Awards afterparty, and more.
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