“This is my forte: good outfit, good ambiance, vibes and dinner,” said Kailand Morris, surveying the red-hued dining room at The Nines. The musician and model was dressed in head-to-toe Tommy Hilfiger for the brand’s fashion week dinner at the popular downtown restaurant.
Morris, who’s the son of Stevie Wonder, mulled the significance of being affiliated with the iconic brand.
“As an artist I’ve really been exploring this emotional connotation of what are the things that are bigger than yourself,” Morris said. “When it comes to Tommy, it’s something that has so much history, and it’s going to continue to make history,” he added. “It’s always great to be a part of history, especially when someone’s rewriting the way that brands are looked at or perceived. I’m just very humbled to hang out with all these cool people and vibe.”
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Before dinner, guests sipped cocktails as a pianist played live from the center of the room.
“I keep hearing about The Nines and now I’m actually here for the first time, it’s fabulous,” said Hilfiger from one of the restaurant’s banquet. “It’s actually somewhat Parisian, isn’t it? It’s very chic.”
The designer’s approach this fashion week was to host an intimate dinner crowd of “interesting and fun influencers.” Guests included musicians Ice Spice, Ava Max and Iann Dior; influencers including Remi Bader, Tinx, Brooks Nader, Noah Beck and Avani Gregg; Aoki Lee Simmons, Kailand Morris, Shanina Shaik, Deon Hinton and Natalia Bryant; “Outer Banks” star Madelyn Cline and “Wednesday” actor Hunter Doohan; and Hilfiger’s daughter Elizabeth Hilfiger, who presented her second Foo and Foo runway show earlier in the day.
Hilfiger noted that his brand is constantly taking design cues from the here-and-now, and there was plenty of inspiration to be found milling around the room.
“We’re always preppy, but we are living in the culture of what we call ‘FAMES’: fashion, art, music, entertainment and sports. So our brand leans into whatever is happening in the culture,” added Tommy Hilfiger. “I’m always learning, because I’m looking at what people are wearing, spending a lot of time traveling the world — and I find that now in America, especially in L.A., they are creating a very casual chic trend that is somewhat nonchalant, and not really forced,” he added. “I like the way that people are styling themselves as individuals.”
The evening culminated in a surprise performance by Charlotte Lawrence, who serenaded the crowd from a stool in front of the grand piano. She capped off her set with a cover of Gotye’s hit “Somebody That I Used to Know.”