Hudson Williams Stopped by a Met Gala After-Party in Silky Boxers and a Beret
And who am I to stop him?
Reported by Harper's Bazaar.
There's the Met Gala red carpet, and then there's everything that happens after midnight. Hudson Williams — who arrived at the Mark Hotel in a bathrobe and walked the carpet in a torso-baring Balenciaga matador moment — apparently had a third look waiting in the wings for the GQ after-party at Twenty Two New York. Because of course he did.
Styled by Anastasia Walker, Williams traded his beaded blue-and-black Balenciaga set for a look pulled from ERL's Fall/Winter 2026 collection: a white tuxedo shirt, matching silky boxer shorts cinched with a cummerbund, and a cropped artisanal tailcoat pinned with ornate gold brooches. A black military beret. Semi-sheer knee socks. Ruched black loafers. Bulgari jewelry and tinted sunglasses to close it out. It was, objectively, a lot — and it worked.
The Method Behind the Madness
The collection the look came from isn't arbitrary. According to Harper's Bazaar, ERL's "The Void" — debuted this past February — was conceived around the tension between elite dressing and deliberate subversion, described by the brand as exploring "where rigid structure meets laissez-faire rebellion, where prep school tradition collides with coastal irreverence." Translation: old-money tailoring with the attitude of someone who's actively bored by old money. Williams, in boxer shorts and a beret at a Condé Nast party, is essentially the collection's thesis statement walking around with a drink in his hand.
This isn't his first time weaponizing suiting. Since breaking through with Heated Rivalry last fall, Williams has returned to tailoring on almost every major red carpet — including a Giorgio Armani suit at the Golden Globes. But where that look was polished and controlled, last night's ERL moment added something looser and more charged. The bones are the same; the energy is entirely different. That's not an accident. That's a stylist and a client who know exactly what they're doing.
The after-party outfit as its own fashion moment is an underrated art form — it has to carry the night forward without competing with the main event. Williams figured that out, and the answer was apparently deconstructed tuxedo, no pants. Honestly? Correct.
If you're going to the Met Gala after-party in your boxers, at least make sure they're ERL with a cummerbund.
Read the original at Harper's Bazaar.
