Every few years, fashion changes tempo, and right now, the pendulum is swinging from day to night. For a while, everything seemed to happen before sunrise: the workout, the green juice, the immaculate skin — all alluding to the suggestion that nobody had been out the night before. Now the appetite is returning, the heels are higher, and the lipstick darker. Glamour feels a little less well-behaved.
The fashion world has always understood that some of its best moments happen once the official program is over: in hotel bars, over late dinners, behind closed doors, and at parties that begin as one thing and end as another.
And increasingly, one drink has become part of that world: the SEVENTY ONE Golden Martini.
The 71 Golden Martini
Created by photographer Mert Alas, SEVENTY ONE began within the same fashion and nightlife worlds that shaped his career. The ‘it’ drink first appeared at Alas's own Fashion Week dinners and parties before becoming a veritable fixture — served at the Met Gala after-party, frozen into shots at post-show gatherings, poured at runway after-parties. In time, it seemed like every stylish tastemaker was seen and photographed sipping the cocktail (before immediately ordering another).
Cold, very dry, and unapologetically glamorous, the SEVENTY ONE Golden Martini feels less like an on-menu cocktail and more like something that has quietly become synonymous with Fashion Week for people in the know.
Below, find SEVENTY ONE’s curated list of the best spots to raise a glass.
New York
In New York, Fashion Week is all movement and rush. Uptown and down, east to west, everyone is running — and usually running late. The trick is knowing which spots are worth changing direction for.
Start Here
Begin on a polished note with a SEVENTY ONE Golden Martini at Fasano Fifth Avenue, where the crowd is discreet, the service seamless, and the people at the next table would probably prefer not to be identified.
A few blocks away, Bar Chimera brings a newer kind of energy. Helmed by the eccentric and excessive Simon Kim, the Midtown oasis is buzzy, beautiful, and just unpredictable enough to feel current.
Downtown, the room at Sloane’s has nothing to prove. Intimate, electric, and effortlessly cool, it’s the kind of place that makes staying below Houston seem like the only sensible decision.
Between the Shows
When you need a break from the Fashion Week churn, Ai Fiori is a composed retreat. Inside, you’ll find an elegant room, immaculate service, and absolutely no one climbing on the furniture.
Bryant Park Grill is another centrally located standby — especially useful in those strange in-between hours when it is no longer lunch and not yet quite dinner.
Dine and Drink
For nights when the reservation suddenly grows from four to nine, Zuma knows how to take care of you. The Midtown sushi spot is moody, social, and always humming.
Tao Downtown is more theatrical: brash, unapologetic, and built for dinners that have a tendency to unravel into much longer nights.
For something more rarefied, settle in for a late dinner at Peak, where the Manhattan skyline slowly dissolves from sunset into the city’s evening glitter.
These are places where dinner is rarely the final act.
Nocturnal Spots
Once the sensible part of the evening is over, the It crowd heads to Avenue Sky Lounge. Come for the views and stay much longer than planned for the music.
In the West Village, Angel’s Share offers the opposite kind of escape. Dimly lit and serious about what’s in the glass, it’s a welcome antidote to Fashion Week’s relentless pace.
London
In London, Fashion Week is less linear. The city is eccentric, unpredictable, and often more fun after midnight. One minute you’re sipping a martini in Mayfair; the next, you’re in somebody’s flat wondering how it suddenly became four in the morning.
The trick is to embrace the detours.
Start Here
Begin in Mayfair at The Donovan Bar, where ordering a SEVENTY ONE Golden Martini still feels like a ritual rather than a performance. It’s elegant and old-school without ever becoming stiff.
For another impeccably made drink, slip into the Red Room at The Connaught — a crimson, low-lit hideaway that takes what’s in the glass very seriously.
Or take a seat at the bar at Kwänt and watch Erik’s craft unfold in front of you. Here, a drink is never something to rush.
Between the Shows
When you tire of the Fashion Week’s endless attention, At Sloane is somewhere to disappear. More private Chelsea house than hotel, it offers a welcome reprieve from the noise outside.
Across town, Artesian at The Langham is polished without being stiff — the sort of hotel bar that can make an otherwise incidental drink feel important.
Dine and Drink
For dinner, Isabel delivers on all fronts: great food, a beautiful room, and exceptional people-watching. It’s the kind of place where dinner rarely remains just a meal.
If the night is already gathering momentum, head to The MAINE. Grand without behaving itself, it has the energy of somewhere one drink can quickly become the beginning of something else.
For a later reservation, The Dover is red-lit, louche, and made for lingering — the kind of room that turns a nine o’clock table into a one o’clock departure.
Nocturnal Spots
By the time Beat becomes relevant, the evening has long since taken on a life of its own. Go very late, and stay: nights here outlast everywhere else.
Paris
Paris doesn’t bother with efficiency. The best Fashion Week nights here are not built around jumping from place to place, but rather, about staying somewhere long enough for the room to gather steam.
Start Here
Start in Saint-Germain at Sugaar. Small, energetic, and personal, it’s a chic place for the first SEVENTY ONE Golden Martini of the evening — the kind of opening drink that quietly decides the rest of the night.
For something more old-world, there’s Lapérouse. Its private salons, gilded mirrors, and centuries of bad behavior are suspiciously well-suited to Fashion Week.
Or begin around Madeleine at Lucas Carton, where Old Paris provides a civilized first act before the evening becomes considerably less so.
Across the river, Fitzgerald offers something softer: intimate, elegant, and pleasantly removed from the frenzy outside.
Between the Shows
Hôtel Costes remains Fashion Week’s unofficial reunion point. Some places require rediscovery every season; Costes has been part of the circuit for far too long to bother. Stop in between appointments and you’re almost guaranteed to encounter someone you know — or someone you were trying not to.
For a change of scenery, head to Le 1905 at Vins des Pyrénées when Paris starts to feel a little too polished. Or slip into La Fontaine Gaillon when you’re in the mood for something unmistakably French.
Dine and Drink
At Lafayette’s, the room has enough personality to withstand a Fashion Week crowd rather than disappear beneath it.
For a longer affair, Camondo is made for the nights when the table is too good and the company too interesting to care about whatever comes next.
If you’re craving ceremony, head to Prunier. With its mosaics, mirrors, caviar, and Art Deco interiors, the room has been beautiful since 1925, and remains ideal for an elegant beginning to any manner of evening.
After dinner, descend beneath Carboni’s to Bar Sotto, where candlelight and a hidden room provide the satisfying sense that the night has moved somewhere it was not entirely supposed to.
Nocturnal Spots
As the evening grows later, Hollywood Savoy practically discourages moderation.
Doobies occupies that useful middle ground between finishing dinner and admitting that the night is only just beginning.
After midnight, there’s Raspoutine: velvet, darkness, dancing, and dawn. Nobody comes here expecting restraint.
And when the official Fashion Week plans are over, head to LPDO in Pigalle — ideally once everything you were supposed to be doing has already finished.
After Fashion Week
When the invitations stop, the night doesn’t have to. A bottle of SEVENTY ONE keeps the mood going a little longer. In New York, find it at Collezione; in London, it at Selfridges or Berry Bros. & Rudd; and in Paris, at La Grande Épicerie.
Because if Fashion Week proves anything, it’s that the best moments often begin once the official plans are over.
Dress up. Go out. Have a Golden Martini.
