Inside Bar Marmont, the honky-tonk hang kicked into a higher register when Diplo jumped behind the decks and started going back-to-back with DJ KITTYSAYWORD. Apparently, not even a room full of famous people are too cool to get way down on the dancefloor to “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” At a certain point, potential future Shania Twain collaborator Shaboozey draped a “Man Of The Year” sash over his custom Bode blazer. Would he take home the night’s top prize?
It was anyone’s game in a room full of suede, conchos, boots, bandanas, studs, turquoise, denim, leather, feathers, sequins, snakeskin, and at least one rabbit tail—everything but the saddle, basically. You couldn’t swing a bolo without hitting a laced-out celebrity: Tyler, the Creator held court at the raucous main bar with his friends Lionel Boyce and Travis Bennett, while the young Hollywood crew of Rachel Sennott, Jordan Firstman, Benito Skinner, and Danielle Haim posted up on the smoking patio. Sennott and Firstman gasped at Skinner’s allover printed suit designed by Eli Russell Linnetz, who also photographed the Men of the Year issue cover stories. “I need to say hi to Eli!” Skinner crowed. “He kind of made the magazine. Miss girl!”
“I think it should be YG,” argued Willy Chavarria, who dressed the LA rap star in a velvet jacket fit for a Ryman Auditorium headliner. Chavarria, saluted in the issue as the breakout designer of the year, had a good case going for himself, too. “I’m staying in Downtown LA and I went to Santee Alley and bought all this stuff. It’s the most OG Mexican cowboy shit,” he said, pointing to his embroidered bow and western cap. A nearby Chris Black put his thumb on the scale for a chest-baring Walton Goggins, who was snacking on fries in a booth with Johnson and Mulaney: “He kind of went sexy with the sheer shirt, which I’ve never seen a cowboy do, but if anybody can pull it off, he can.”
But there could only be one best-dressed cowpoke at the American rodeo. When Welch grabbed a mic to announce the winner, guests were still lobbying any GQ staffer in their vicinity for their right to the Greg Yuna-designed trophy. But nobody could match, as Welch put it, “The great, beautiful, and extremely fly” Naomi Osaka, who put an elegant spin on Hollywood Western in custom Amiri. The four-time Grand Slam tennis champion took off her black cowboy hat and Welch put the medal around her neck. “I don’t know if you should trust me with a microphone right now,” she said to raucous cheers. “I was surveying everyone’s outfit, and everyone looks amazing. So thank you.” And then, the punchline: “It feels great to win a medal this year!”
At the bar, there were no hard feelings from Shaboozey, who ordered another round and marveled at the fact that, for one night, his wild world of style had taken over Hollywood. “YG over there got a hat and boots on! Quavo’s in chaps—everyone’s doing it!” He flashed a broad smile. “When I was growing up and listening to country music and dressing and styling myself the way I was, I had a dream, and my dream was to see everybody in the world, even if it was for a little bit, put on Americana style. To see that vision come through…” He raised his glass. “Cheers!”
