When Loulou Had a Party
Fashion parties tend to be a commercial affair these days — not so in the mid-Seventies.
The photographer Francesco Scavullo could throw a rager for the likes of Loulou de La Falaise, the late model and YSL collaborator, without a corporate sponsor or the rental of a warehouse and even without any particular reason. Oh, to experience the days before “networking” was the tacit theme of any gathering of more than 10 people.
But thankfully for posterity’s sake, none other than André Leon Talley, a young WWD staffer at the time, was on hand to recount and photograph the all-night exploits of Loulou, her gold-trimmed jeans and her “inbred Fashion Pack.” In Talley’s brief but lively telling, there are appearances by Elsa Peretti, Andy Warhol mainstay Barbara Allen, Grace Jones and even the long-closed 220 Club, an infamous after-hours venue that was among the first to host drag and transgender pageants, where they all ended up on a December night in 1976:
Three Girls in a Tub: Party Marathon
By André Leon Talley
NEW YORK — There were plenty of cozy sofas in Francesco Scavullo’s East Side Manhattan town house where he threw a party for Loulou de La Falaise Saturday night. But Countess Marina Cicogna, Barbara Allen and de La Falaise opted for the jacuzzi tub. Some 150 guests floated through and gazed at the YSL-rich peasant-clad trio in the sitting room-style bathroom that is full of beauty equipment and even has a white chaise lounge.
“I wanted to give a fluid party for Loulou,” said mama Maxine de La Falaise about her late Friday night buffet, which called to order the Loulou de La Falaise social-marathon weekend. Fluid it was, as the inbred Fashion Pack took over the entire apartment, ate and ran through the vodka and raced out to their favorite sport — all night disco romping.
“What I find is that New York is overground now instead of underground,” said Loulou who arrived in the city with a suitcase jammed with taffeta skirts and corselets but is mainly wearing a pair of gold-trimmed velvet jeans.
Saturday night, mad Loulou dined and danced at Regine’s with a bunch of friends who moved through Manhattan like an incestous family.
By 1 a.m. she arrived at Scavullo’s for her third fete. By 3 a.m. the Pack again moved on, this time over to Harrah, where they stayed in the dance floor until 6 a.m. To end the Loulou marathon, Elsa Peretti and Victor Hugo led a group on to dance until 9 a.m. Sunday at the Miss 220 Club.
— Dec. 14, 1976
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