On Wednesday night, Paper magazine teamed up with Johnnie Walker to host a Lunar New Year party in celebration of Year of the Fire Horse. Early in the evening, the line of party-goers waiting to get inside the W Hotel’s second floor Living Room lounge snaked down the staircase and into the lobby.
The event was also a celebration of Johnnie Walker Blue Label’s special Lunar New Year bottle edition, with a graphic conceptualized by Robert Wun.
“ I’ve never done anything remotely like this,” Wun said at the start of the night. Inspired by the whisky brand’s “keep walking” slogan, he created an image of a horse in movement alongside a model draped in one of his signature pleated designs.
For Wun, Year of the Horse is synonymous with his mother. “ The earliest fashion memory that I had since I was a kid was her pleated maxi trousers that she wore,” said Wun. “The horse always linked to my mom, her work ethic,” he added. “There’s always this story about women empowering themselves and then giving everything to their family.”
And for Wun, Lunar New Year is all about family. “ Every time Lunar New Year comes in, it makes me feel like I need to start finding a balance, maybe work a little bit less, call my parents a little bit more,” he said. “And just to be grateful and spend more time with my loved ones.”
On Wednesday, Lunar New Year meant spending time with his extended fashion family. The room was packed with guests including designer Bach Mai, Larsen Thompson, CT Hedden, Wisdom Kaye, Terrion Arnold, Malik Montana and more.
Kevin Woo, one of the singing voices of “K-pop Demon Hunters” boy group Saja Boys, stopped by to perform “Soda Pop” for the crowd after participating in a Lunar New Year celebration at the Korea Cultural center uptown.
“ I don’t know if it’s a full-on performance, it’s just a sing-along,” said Woo, modest as he made his way toward the DJ booth to lead the crowd in a round of karaoke. “I hope to get everyone else excited. We’re celebrating all things Asian, and to be here is just a huge honor.”
The former member of boy band U-Kiss is gearing up for his feature film acting debut in “K-pops!” directed by and costarring Anderson .Paak. The film, which debuted at Toronto last fall, comes out in theaters later this month.
“The world is craving more K-pop and anything around that on the big screen,” said Woo, who’s also gearing up to release new solo music. “For me to be involved in both projects, it just means so much to me, and also my community and for representation. Who knew that K-pop would be even bigger than we imagined?”
