NCT’s Johnny Suh Brings K-pop Flair to Black Tie
The musician discusses his Thom Browne look for the Gold Gala, and why the best gift he’s received from fans isn’t a tangible present.
Johnny Suh may have hit the red carpet at the Gold Gala in Los Angeles on May 6 wearing a bespoke Thom Browne suit, but the day before, he could be found frolicking on Venice Beach in a much humbler look: jeans, a white t-shirt, and a plaid jacket. The K-pop star, known for his lead dancing and lyrical stylings in the supergroup NCT, flew from his home base of Seoul just to attend the awards show.
Put on by the organization Gold House, the Gold Gala honors the top 100 Asian and Pacific Islanders who have significantly impacted the culture at large. Of course, the cast of Everything Everywhere All at Once was on hand (Ke Huy Quan embraced his fellow honoree Sandra Oh on the carpet), in addition to Ashley Park, Daniel Dae Kim, Prabal Gurung, and many more AAPI luminaries. From the moment Suh hit the cream-colored steps outside The Music Center in Downtown L.A., fans were screaming his name—24 hours prior, however, Suh had just landed on the West Coast.
“The flight was fine until the last 30 minutes but...we made it!” Suh tells W via email. “The first thing I did was buy some coffee.” Together with his team of about 10 (“it’s a whole squad,” Suh adds), the musician began getting ready for the Gold Gala about an hour and a half before the event was due to begin. It was far from the performer’s first time in the United States: in fact, Suh was born in Chicago and often flies between New York and L.A. (Last year, he attended the 2022 Met Gala in a satin Peter Do number, then returned to Manhattan a few months later to sit front row at Thom Browne’s fall 2023 presentation during NYFW.)
Still, the sun and positive disposition of Los Angeles draws Suh back time and again—and each visit, he makes sure to spend a moment at the beach. He also practices what has become something of an accidental tradition: “I wouldn’t say it’s intentional, but every time I come here, I always eat Chipotle for some reason.” Below, Suh takes us behind the scenes of his getting-ready process for this year’s Gold Gala.
“The getting-ready process starts with hair (and a quick scroll through my phone),” Suh says. Music, of course, is a must—but the playlist “changes quite often,” he adds. This time, the songs floating through his L.A. hotel room were nearly all by Daniel Caesar. “Right now I’m into his new album: ‘Cool’ is a good song I’m really enjoying.”
Suh went through three rounds of edits before deciding on his look for the Gold Gala. “Thom Browne kindly sent us three, so we choose from those options,” he adds. “We wanted something flashy, but not too flashy.”
“We played around with a few ideas for the accessories, but ended up keeping it pretty simple with a bow tie and some gold jewelry.”
The musician is always involved in the selection process: “I see the options, I try on the options. There is usually something I like and something other people like. Then we try to find the middle ground,” he says. “I like listening to people, but I also have my preferences.”
Those preferences include a classic black tie ensemble—but that wasn’t always the case. As a teenager, Suh says he dressed like his “friends who were older than me. I took their looks. A lot of my friends were skaters, so I had skinny jeans—I felt like I was the only guy wearing skinny jeans back in 2007 or 2008.”
These days, he’s ambivalent about his go-to color palette. “I prefer all black, but I also avoid all black,” he says. “Seriously! I want to wear all black in my heart, but then I know sometimes it can be boring.”
Suh’s first time sitting front row at a fashion show was, in fact, during Thom Browne’s fall 2023 presentation. Afterward, he spent time outside the NYFW venue signing autographs and receiving flowers from his fans. Still, his favorite present he’s received from NCTzens isn’t a tangible gift at all. “On my birthday, fans open up cafés and they put up pictures and meet,” he says. “I find that kind of event really nice. I get thankful because they’re happy, and that makes me happy.”
The performer—whose celebrity style he admires most is A$AP Rocky’s—sees his American fan base and Korean fan base as one and the same. “They love me, and it’s mutual,” he says.
