W Toasts Its Annual Originals Issue With Intimate Gathering of New York Creatives

Over the past several years, New York’s famed Chinese restaurant Shun Lee West has become the gathering place for W’s annual celebration honoring The Originals Issue. It’s a natural pairing: the institution is a bastion of old school idiosyncrasy. And like each of the creatives featured in the magazine, it’s stylishly, confidently one of a kind.

On Wednesday night, an intimate crowd of New Yorkers from the worlds of fashion, art, design, film and photography gathered in the checkerboard café space to toast the release of the issue over Tanqueray martinis and platters piled high with dim sum. Many of the talent featured in this year’s Originals portfolio were in attendance, including Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij, creators of the cult hit show The OA and the highly anticipated thriller series A Murder at the End of the World; as well as designers Ashlynn Park, of Ashlyn, and Puppets and Puppets founder Carly Mark.

Also in the mix at the event, presented in partnership with Genesis: Karlie Kloss and Dianna Agron, who both arrived wearing Proenza Schouler, to the delight of designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez. Former W intern Grace Burns, fresh off of her Milan Fashion Week runway debut (following in her mother Christy Turlington Burns’ footsteps) caught up with the W’s Editor in Chief Sara Moonves. Meanwhile Industry star Myha’la Herrold cozied up to her boyfriend Armando Rivera. Herrold was just one of several notables from the film and TV sphere including Hailey Benton Gates, No Hard Feelings director Gene Stupnitsky, producer Eli Bush, and director Ariel Schulman. For photographers and frequent W contributors Theo Wenner, Quil Lemons, Oliver Hadlee Pearch, Jeff Henrikson and Craig McDean the evening offered a chance to reconnect with close friends and collaborators.

As the night wound down, guests picked up gift bags stocked with products from exclusive beauty partner La Mer and cracked open fortune cookies, sharing the pithy truisms they found inside. An apt one for the occasion: “Be true to your work, your word, and your friends.”