New York’s Coolest Designer Skipped The Runway — And Threw a Rager at the Arcade Instead
How do you get the best-coiffed, best-behaved set at New York Fashion Week to actually let their hair down on a Saturday night? Set the party at the most uncontestable site of delight: the arcade.
Last night at the Chinatown Fair Family Fun Center, Emily Dawn Long and Highsnobiety celebrated the downtown designer’s incoming fall collection, which all the fashionables got a glimpse of earlier that afternoon — not with a traditional runway show or presentation, but the premiere of “Crack of Dawn,” a four-minute short film where notable names like Meadow Walker and Terrence O’Connor strutted around a city block in EDL’s latest trimmings.
The idea was inspired by Dawn Long’s personal “morning movies” ritual: “I literally watch a movie every morning — I wake up, I get my laptop, and I lock in for an hour and a half,” the designer explained. Her face softened for a second. “I’ve lived alone and I’ve worked alone for years,” she then added, partly as a self-conscious explanation for the need for background noise. And partly as a reminder to herself of the sharp contrast between then and now, as the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Finalist and New York’s most-talked-about designer barely managed to get a full sentence out between greeting all of her friends, collaborators, and well-wishers.
At the arcade, her guests — a mass of highlighted beachy waves and mullet-y fringes, with many an exposed back courtesy of the EDL Kipling tank — received ‘90s slap-bracelets in lieu of wristbands, unlimited game cards instead of curt seating assignments. On tap were espresso martinis and tall glasses of “ranch water,” courtesy of Belvedere. As guests hiked their shoulder bags up to toss mini-basketballs and kicked off their kitten heels to stomp on some plastic light-up arrows, a thrilling zip of glee filled the air.
The chef Flynn McGarry tried his hand at the punching machine; the model and artist Ella Emhoff, wearing one of EDL’s “Spoiled Boys” graphic tees, was heard announcing that she’d nabbed the new top score on DDR (Asked if girls could be “spoiled boys” too: “Yes. A girl’s level of spoiled is a boy’s baseline,” she joked.) Shrieks of delight could be heard coming from the darkened curtains of House of the Dead: Scarlet Dawn. Meanwhile, the designer and DJ Eugene Whang attempted to keep up with his young son as they darted past an overly competitive round of air hockey. This writer even found herself playing Guitar Hero for the first time in 15 years, against the designer Greg Jackson (Greg won). At 10pm, the chef Danny Bowien and a procession from Mission Chinese entered carrying crates of black truffle fried rice, addictive cabbage, and smacked cucumbers on their heads.
The woman of the hour, Dawn Long, was spotted enthusiastically tossing balls with her boyfriend for Break the Plate; she wore a white knit shirt and jeans of her own design, and had wound a long ribbon of green prize tickets around her neck like an early 2000’s scarf. “The fact that she’s wearing the tickets around her neck in a way that’s so chic — that’s the whole vibe,” as the author Samantha Leach noted admiringly. (Tickets could be cashed in for tiny teddy bears wearing miniature versions of “Spoiled Boys” tees, though you could also have one if you asked nicely. When I showed one to the Nordstrom fashion director Jian DeLeon, he gasped, “SHUT THE FUCK UP!” and made a beeline for the prize table.)
The predominant feeling: It’s always a good time when you’re in Emily Dawn Long’s world. For observers (and competitors!) wanting to distill the EDL essence, just know that the question is as ineffable as asking why a popular girl got popular. It’s her, it’s her clothes, it’s everything in between. In an informal poll amongst her cadre of early adopters, stylists, and admirers, there was an overall agreement that Dawn Long’s clothes aren’t just great — they make people feel something about themselves.
“She sees something in people that she reflects in clothes, and I think she makes clothes for people to feel a certain way in,” as Highsnobiety editor-in-chief Noah Johnson said. The New York magazine writer Sam Hine remembers stumbling across the designer’s first work in 2019, when she was seemingly just a girl making some wacky crocheted hats: “It didn’t even feel like a business or a brand, she was just creating something because she thought it was cool,” Hine said. “She’s very persuasive.” Stylist Dionne Davis, who works with Dawn Long, “I think Emily’s clothes are set apart because it’s covetable but it’s also incredibly wearable. It’s all conversation pieces that are everyday."
The stylist Abe Santana chimed in: “With the men's clothes she did, they’re so classically masculine but they're so playful. She could put it on a 90-year-old man, and there would be something that pulls out what he wanted to be in his 20s. There’s something whimsical about it. And I see it also in the women’s clothing, it’s just sexy enough where it is playful, too.” (Note that the new collection’s entire premise hinges on a booty-centric pun and literal feature — or what Dawn Long herself calls “southern cleavage.”)
Just past 11pm, this writer finally squeezed her way out of the jam-packed arcade and past the expected lively scrum exchanging cigarettes and compliments on the sidewalk. As I walked down the corner and down the block, I spotted a gathering of an entirely different kind loitering near the entrance of one of those posh new invite-only clubs. Quiet, listlessly waiting in line, dressed anonymously in the typical New York blacks and sensible chinos. It wasn’t out of the ordinary for a Saturday night in the city, but after the sensational high-saturation rush of Emily Dawn Long and her posse at the arcade, the eye practically cried out in hunger. What a reminder of how much more stylish it is to have a little fun.
