Rodeo Drive, on any given day in Los Angeles, always has a number of tourists really there not to shop but to hopefully spot some celebrities. But Rodeo Drive, on the night before the Oscars—where Giorgio Armani annually holds a cocktail party for notable friends of the Italian house—basically only has tourists hoping to spot a celebrity. On March 14, they packed the entire block, cell phones and notebooks out. (The autograph is apparently alive and well! Who knew!) When a famous face did arrive, they screamed their names at the top of their lungs: Samuel! (For Samuel L. Jackson.) Minnie! (For Minnie Driver.) Ali! (For Ali Larter). Although it didn’t even need to even be a specific moniker. “FAMOUS PEOPLE!” I heard a woman shout into the ether as I walked into the store.
Which was, thanks to a hidden DJ or perhaps just an excellent speaker system, bumping. Most of the guests wore black or navy, two colors synonymous with the brand. (Well, with the exception of Maura Higgins—the reality TV star of the moment thanks to her high profile turn on The Traitors. She wore cherry red to match her Armani sunglasses and her new Birkin, a gift from Traitors cast member Rob Rausch who, spoiler alert, betrayed her in the game in order to win $100,000. How does she feel walking in Beverly Hills with this insanely flashy designer outfit—as one does when in, well, Beverly Hills? “Bloody amazing,” she tells Vanity Fair.)
Macaulay Culkin and Brenda Song are there, holding hands. She giggles and whispers something into his ear as he talks a selfie of them in the mirror. People crowd around Jon Hamm—but since this crowd is a curated one, it’s not random fans. The Mad Men actor just has a lot of friends, it seems. An area is temporarily cordoned off. “We’re going to be closed for a hot sec,” a very polite staff member in black tells an inquisitive guest. They’re busy taking glamour shots of Yara Shahidi.
Armani is a brand that’s mastered red carpet dressing for both men and women: Jodie Foster wore an Armani champagne suit to accept the Academy Award for best actress for her role in Silence of the Lambs in 1992. George Clooney wore their tuxedo to the 2008 ceremony where he was nominated for Michael Clayton. Viola Davis was a vision in Armani red while accepting the golden statue for best supporting actress in 2017. So it’s no surprise that the Italian house decided to host a champagne toast at their Beverly Hills store the night before the Oscars: why not pop a little bubbly before the next set of famous faces wears their designs on a global stage?
By 7:30 p.m.—just as the sun set on the Hollywood Hills —the party began to show the first signs of winding down. This is the night before the Oscars, after all. Los Angeles needs its beauty sleep.
