How Suki Waterhouse and Poppy Jamie Became Best Friends, and Why Kathryn Newton Would Love a Second Season of Big Little Lies
It was a packed house Wednesday night inside the Sunset Tower Hotel, where model and actress Suki Waterhouse and her best friend, TV presenter Poppy Jamie celebrated the premiere of a short film, in collaboration with Kodak, for the spring/summer 2017 collection of Pop & Suki, their line of customizable bags and accessories.
“I’m slightly worried about the capacity,” said Jamie, as she looked around. The doors had opened just 30 minutes prior and was beginning to feel crammed. “I’m just happy people came out on a Wednesday.”
The two Brits met about five years ago in a nightclub down the road, she said, which was “slightly less chic than this.”
“I was wearing a massive, giant pink dress that night,” later shared Waterhouse. “We got introduced, and I was really attracted to her dancing, and then we just were glued to each other after that.”
Poppy Jamie, Suki Waterhouse
“Really she is a soulmate to me,” said Jamie. “We talk about everything all day, every day.”
It’s one thing to be close friends and another to collaborate on this scale. It works, simply, because they’re honest with one another, said Waterhouse.
“And we’re not very competitive,” she added. “There’s so much positivity. Poppy is always looking at the positive. I need that around me.”
The ladies, as best friends do, were in unison with their outfits of choice; Waterhouse was in a beaded pink, strappy dress, paired with a blue fur shawl and white sneakers (“It’s too painful in my shoes, so I’m in my Converse”), while Jamie chose a dress in a similar blue hue and silver pumps.
Waterhouse had just wrapped a film in New Orleans and was enjoying hanging out with some of the cast, she said, one of which was Hari Nef, who was in town from New York.
“I love coming to L.A. as a New Yorker,” said Nef. “It’s exotic to me, because I don’t know anybody. I can kind of blend into the woodwork and watch everyone.”
Hari Nef, Robert Pattinson, Courtney Love and More Celebrate Pop & Suki
Hari Nef, Suki Waterhouse and Jaime King celebrate Pop & Suki’s Spring 2017 collection in Los Angeles.
Poppy Jamie, Paris Hilton and Suki Waterhouse celebrate Pop & Suki’s Spring 2017 collection in Los Angeles.
Delilah Belle Hamlin celebrates Pop & Suki’s Spring 2017 collection in Los Angeles.
Courtney Love celebrates Pop & Suki’s Spring 2017 collection in Los Angeles.
Robert Pattinson celebrates Pop & Suki’s Spring 2017 collection in Los Angeles.
Victoria Justice celebrates Pop & Suki’s Spring 2017 collection in Los Angeles.
Paris Hilton and Chris Zylka celebrate Pop & Suki’s Spring 2017 collection in Los Angeles.
Guests celebrate Pop & Suki’s Spring 2017 collection in Los Angeles.
Hari Nef and Jaime King celebrate Pop & Suki’s Spring 2017 collection in Los Angeles.
Poppy Jaime and Suki Waterhouse celebrate Pop & Suki’s Spring 2017 collection in Los Angeles.
Wallis Day and Doina Ciobanu celebrate Pop & Suki’s Spring 2017 collection in Los Angeles.
Paris Hilton and Suki Waterhouse celebrate Pop & Suki’s Spring 2017 collection in Los Angeles.
Eva Dolezalova and Jordan Barrett celebrate Pop & Suki’s Spring 2017 collection in Los Angeles.
Kathryn Newton celebrates Pop & Suki’s Spring 2017 collection in Los Angeles.
Doina Ciobanu celebrates Pop & Suki’s Spring 2017 collection in Los Angeles.
Poppy Jamie, Jaime King, and Suki Waterhouse celebrate Pop & Suki’s Spring 2017 collection in Los Angeles.
Paris Hilton celebrates Pop & Suki’s Spring 2017 collection in Los Angeles.
Jaime King, Suki Waterhouse, and Eva Dolezalova celebrate Pop & Suki’s Spring 2017 collection in Los Angeles.
Jordan Barrett celebrates Pop & Suki’s Spring 2017 collection in Los Angeles.
Delilah Belle Hamlin celebrates Pop & Suki’s Spring 2017 collection in Los Angeles.
Sofia Carson celebrates Pop & Suki’s Spring 2017 collection in Los Angeles.
Hari Nef celebrates Pop & Suki’s Spring 2017 collection in Los Angeles.
Suki Waterhouse celebrates Pop & Suki’s Spring 2017 collection in Los Angeles.
Renee Blythewood Hall celebrates Pop & Suki’s Spring 2017 collection in Los Angeles.
The film, Assassination Nation by Sam Levinson was Nef’s first experience acting for the big screen.
“We filmed over the past two months and became pretty close over the process,” Nef said of Waterhouse. “I just love that she has this entrepreneurial dimension. It’s funny, because they didn’t have to give me any bags for the event. I already have them and wear them. They’re really simple and have my name on them, which is cute.”
Also with a bag of her own was rising model Delilah Belle Hamlin, 18-year-old daughter of Lisa Rinna and Harry Hamlin.
“I know Suki from Instagram,” she said with a smile. “She sent me a purse.”
Delilah Belle
“Dress to dance,” said the invitation, and they did. By 9 p.m. the party was going strong, as guests, which included Courtney Love, Jordan Barrett, Victoria Justice, Jaime King and Eva Dolezalova, sipped on Ruffino sparkling wine and indulged in alcoholic popsicles by Lic and made their way outside by the pool. In one corner was an incognito Robert Pattinson, keeping a low profile in a black cap, and in another was Paris Hilton, her arms around current boyfriend Chris Zylka.
Sitting across from them at the same table was actress Kathryn Newton, who has recently been in the spotlight thanks to her role in HBO’s hit series Big Little Lies.
“The amount of texts and phone calls and emails I got, I was blown away,” she said. “I have never gotten a response like that on a project that I’ve done.”
The cast live tweeted some of the earlier episodes, and the reactions to her teenage character were amusing, she said: “The tweets for Abigail were so funny, like, ‘if that was my daughter, that wouldn’t be happening.’”
Kathryn Newton
She’s kept in touch with Reese Witherspoon, who plays her mother on the show. “Reese and I Snapchat a lot. She keeps in touch with me that way. And Zoë [Kravitz] and I are good friends and hang out every once and awhile.”
“But that rumor about that second season, I’m like ‘yes!’” she continued. “Please! It would be amazing to get all those powerful women back together in one room.”
Newton—one to watch—leaves Friday for Atlanta to shoot a new film for three months, a project by Universal Pictures.
“It hasn’t been announced yet,” she said. “It’s going to be really, really funny, that’s what I can tell you. There’s some cool kids in the movie.”
Soon, Waterhouse and Jamie grabbed the mic to welcome the crowd and present the film—shot on 35mm,16mm and the new Kodak Super 8 in Malibu—but some technical difficulties ensued, as jarring feedback noise filled the room, when Jamie began to speak.
“So sorry!” they both exclaimed. Waterhouse turned to her bestie, “So classic Bridget Jones.”
Suki Waterhouse, Margherita Missoni and more haute bohemians open up their homes for W:
