“Thank god, it’s finally drying up!” So say the WhatsApp group chats pinging about the party classes. And, no, they are not talking about the weather.
While it has been wet old summer for most of London, the vanguard of glossy-skinned society freshers have been knee deep in a complementary-booze-soaked romp through fashion parties, to Wimbledon and Glasto, a string of the Cotswolds’ most stately of homes via Ibiza and back in time for a final slosh of tequila in the members-only back rooms of Koko.
Cliques have formed, mutually beneficial friendships have been forged and relative unknowns have hoofed themselves up the social ladder just in time for the fashion week guest lists to be finalised. Everyone knows September is the real start of a new year — meet the kids set on making it theirs.
The yappies (young actors)
Guppies (young professionals who have given up on owning property) hit the headlines this month. But at fashion’s big summer bashes, you found yappies (young acting professionals); double entendre intended, if offenders have been musical theatre trained.
Leaders of this pack are the innocent-faced new cast of The Crown; Ed McVey (Prince William), Luther Ford (Prince Harry) and Meg Bellamy (Kate Middleton). They have fewer than 20K Instagram followers combined (read: none), but between them have checked off every mega event: Goodwood with Cartier, Wimbledon with evian, Vogue dinners and sightings at the National Gallery and Royal Academy of Arts summer soirées. It’s evidence that PRs know they’re set to boom.
Another royal pretender, Londoner Nicholas Galitzine (more established, with four million Instagram followers), plays a horny and homosexual Prince Henry (based on Prince Harry) in Prime Video’s new film Red, White and Royal Blue, is a fan favourite and has already been scooped up for Fendi’s June show and after-party.
Other hot beds for tadpole RADA graduates on the rise included Ralph Lauren’s much desired Wimbledon box on Wednesday 12 July. It was not their flagship Ariana Grande, Andrew Garfield day, instead the reserve of unfamiliar names with recognizable faces from tween TV, including (notepad, ready): India Amarteifio, Freddie Dennis and Corey Mylchreest, of Netflix’s Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story; Charithra Chandran, of actual Bridgerton; Joe Locke and William Gao of Heartstopper and Jonah Hauer-King and Jessica Alexander of The Little Mermaid.
The influencer-ati
TikTokers, influencers, internet personalities — call them what you want, they are too busy jet skiing through the Mediterranean on someone else’s company card to care. Summer 2023 has been a watershed moment for content creator trips, which involve savvy brands flying groups of wellwatched 20-somethings on holiday, thowing them a party, and letting them tag the business as thanks online.
Leo Mandella, who has 710K Instagram followers, joined the likes of Olivia Neill (836K), Lucas White-Smith (382K), Edie Rose (319K) and more, for July boat days in Ibiza with jewellery brand TwoJeys. “None of us got paid for it, but I probably posted more stories from that because it felt unforced. They just said come and have a good time with some of my best friends from London,” he says.
Others let talent just invite friends themselves; Icelandic outerwear brand 66°North hired Mia Regan, girlfriend of Romeo Beckham, to round up a 15-person camping party to celebrate their festival fashion in West Wales at the end of May.
The top pedigree…
Nepo baby spotting is a lot like Pokémon; it’s fun to play, they’re cute to look at, and you Gotta Catch ‘Em All.
Taking the baton from the likes of Iris Law and Lila Moss — lesser seen out about town today — are a green new set: Rocco Ritchie (son of Madonna and Guy Ritchie), Isan Elba (daughter of Idris Elba), Lennon and Gene Gallagher (sons of Liam Gallagher), Emilia Boateng (daughter of Ozwald Boateng), and Maddi and Immy Waterhouse (sisters of Suki Waterhouse). They dominated the art summer party scene (with jaunts to the National Portrait Gallery, V&A and Serpentine) and can always be found camped out in Chiltern’s hole-in-the-wall smoking sofas.
On the aristo-front, winners this summer include 20-year-old Samuel Aitken, the model younger halfbrother of the Spencer twins, the Hon Delphi Primrose, beloved by Tatler and flown about by French luxury brands, and the Gordon-Lennox brothers, Charles and William, who were dapper as they hosted the Goodwood Festival of Speed on their estate last month.
…and their partners
Some of those gifted with special surnames have yanked silver spoons from their mouths to allow for passionate snogging; summer 2023 has been a verifiable race for the best power pairing.
Lila Moss flaunted the dashing, fashion marketing student Yoni Helbitz as she arrived at Wimbledon in July, Raff Law has splashed his new girlfriend, actor Rosa Ramirez, over Instagram, and Izzy Richmond has been on hand to cheer boyfriend Lennon Gallagher’s dad during gigs at Koko. On the continent, Sienna Miller and Poppy Delevingne have swooned for younger models. Miller, who is said not to be drinking this summer, has been joined at the hip with actor Oli Green, 26, while Delevingne has snagged Europe’s hottest royal, Prince Constantine Alexios of Greece, 24, being spotted together on Ibiza yachts at a candle-lit dinner at Chiltern.
The Cotswolds contingent
There was much disgruntlement when the Elizabeth line map revealed it would make it to Shenfield (“where, sorry?”) but not Soho Farmhouse’s local station Charlbury. Anyone in doubt that the Oxfordshire spot is a borough of the capital has not been this summer. Just last night, hundreds of London influencers were taken there for a fraternity-style mansion party thrown by creative agency EYC LTD and Jack Wills. “We are trying to do stuff that other people aren’t doing, there are so many parties every night in London — we need to make sure to get the people you want there by offering something else,” says EYC founder Cora Delaney.
Down the road, in June, was the Gatsby-scale launch of RH England, which drew US A-listers Syndey Sweeney and Zoe Saldana to mix with more embryonic-looking Londoners; specifically James Edward (who wore a sophisticated dressing gown), the fiery haired Calum Harper and foppish Callum Mullin, who together count 129.7M likes on TikTok. “You need all the tribes; from the rah, 5 Hertford crowd to the cool east Londoners and influencers — when you put opposites together things become really fun,” says Michael Hennegan, who organised the bash. “And the Brits love an event in the country; Fiona Howden throws a party on the Saturday night on Cornbury Park Estate during Wilderness Festival, which was a hot ticket [in August]. Kate Moss did a party at The Lakes by Yoo around that time, which everyone was raving about.”
Patrón bussed up what felt like half of London’s creative industries — stylist of the moment Georgia Medley, interiors star Maximilian Hurd, and model Kai-Isaiah Jamal — to Farmhouse in July, rolling out a long weekend of F1, wedding-day banquets and an unlimited supply of their El Cielo tequila (ending in bike crashes on cycles to bed), while this month, the Gentleman’s Journal helicoptered the most dapper models-cum-influencers The Flag Twins, Kit Price and Francis Bourgeois out for their alfresco summer lunch — Blenheim Palace seemed to be a fun change of scenery.
