Lily Allen, London Ladies, and ‘SNL’ Stars Lit up the Royal Academy’s Summer Party

Reported by Vogue.

Some events have the decency to be both genuinely good and genuinely glamorous. The Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition Preview Party — running uninterrupted since 1769 and now on its 258th edition — is one of them. Rain threatened, as London insists on doing, but it did nothing to deter the artists, aristocrats, actors, and assorted it-girls who turned out for what remains the jewel of the city's early-summer social calendar. Outside, Ugo Rondinone's vivid installation anchored the Palladian facade. Inside: Fortnum & Mason champagne, Sol LeWitt-inspired canapés, wagyu bites, shucked Maldon oysters, and a House of Creed lounge for those with VIP wristbands and a nose for luxury.

This year's exhibition, themed Interconnectedness, was conceived and curated by Royal Academician Professor Ryan Gander OBE, who told Vogue he wanted to "explore ideas of entanglement, as well as the unexpected and fortuitous connections and associations between disparate things, no matter how abstract or illogical." Works by Tracey Emin shared gallery space with submissions from degree students and recent graduates — over 30 current RA students made the cut — a deliberate choice from Gander, who advocates hard for emerging voices. A glossy white horizontal line threads through the galleries as a structural provocation: some works hang above it, some below, some deliberately across it. "I hope this reminds us that historically great artwork can be cognitive first and retinal second," he said. Music curation fell to broadcaster and RA honorary trustee Clara Amfo — the first person to hold that role — who brought in DJ sets from Zezi Ifore, CKTRL, and others, closing the night with a live set from Sasha Keable. "Artists can be taken for granted," Amfo noted. "The RA supports artists of all practices without any government assistance. I find it sincerely hopeful."

The Fashion Deserved Its Own Gallery

The co-chairs alone were a look: musician Anoushka Shankar, actor Archie Madekwe, Frieze's EMEA Director Eva Langret, British Fashion Council CEO Laura Weir, and Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry — who showed up in a riot of clashing prints and a pair of acid yellow platform boots, because of course he did. Lily Allen worked a feather-necked 16Arlington gown alongside the label's designer Marco Capaldo. Honor Swinton-Byrne and designer Talia Byre arrived together, both dressed in Byre's work. Anna Schaffer floated through in a floral-bustiered Simone Rocha dress; Greta Bellamacina went full gothic in Pauline Dujancourt tulle. Jenna Coleman chose a delicate Lanvin floral print, and Grace Dent posed — with enviable composure — next to a bronze cat sculpture in a powder-blue, puff-sleeved Rebecca Vallance midi. Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath and Ladies of London breakout, opted for a sheer-skirted Simkhai dress, while SNL UK's Ania Magliano suit-and-sneakered her way through the galleries.

Brian Cox and Jessie Ware commanded whatever room they wandered into. The New York Brass Band and Sunny Steel Band played. The after-party spilled across the street — and, for some, all the way to Soho, where Olivia Dean was hosting her own. Festivities, predictably, outlasted any curfew anyone had planned for.

When the art is smart, the music is curated, the food is inventive, and the dressing is genuinely considered, a party stops being a party and starts being a cultural event — which is exactly what the RA Summer Preview has always known how to be.

Read the original at Vogue.