Interview Magazine Celebrated 50 Years and a New Book With a Cocktail-Soaked Downtown Dinner

“In the future,” Andy Warhol quipped in 1968, “Everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” That witticism, now canonized as an American proverb, proved false in regards to the magazine the artist founded a half-century ago. Last night, Interview celebrated its semicentennial with serious style.

Following its grand store opening last week, Nordstrom hosted an intimate dinner at Indochine. The restaurant, with its rich history and enduring relevance, offered an ideal setting to toast a magazine that has come to personify New York culture.

“I started here as a server,” said Jean-Marc Houmard, co-owner of the restaurant where he climbed the ranks since arriving in Manhattan in the 1980s. “And I’ve seen everyone!”

In its early days, the downtown haunt attracted Andy Warhol and his Factory set. Photographs of the artist with a strapping Jean-Michel Basquiat in front of the jungle wallpaper testify to the venue’s position in the city’s cultural history. Since then, seemingly every socialite, supermodel, intellectual, ingenue, business tycoon, and television personality has flocked to the sophisticated enclave to drink and dine.

Unsurprisingly, everyone turned up last night. Stephanie Seymour caught up with Owen Wilson, while her son Harry Brant chatted up Derek Blasberg. Photographers Ellen von Unwerth and Ethan James Green mingled with some of their former subjects and collaborators. Rising stars Moses Sumney and Nicholas Braun huddled near the red lacquer window.

Nestled in emerald banquettes, characters chattered over a feast of Cornish hen, sea bass, and shaking beef. Arriving straight from his appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Jeremy O. Harris, whose Slave Play is bewitching Broadway, trotted over to greet Jordan Roth, a vision in camel and diamanté.

Early in the evening, as lethal cocktails circulated the thickening crowd, Patrick McMullan approached a group and lifted his camera; “Get together. You look interesting!”

Earlier that day, Nordstrom hosted a release party for Interview: 50 Years, a captivating monograph from Assouline, at its new flagship. Covered in flowers, the handsome book was stacked on the bar and behind the banquettes.

“I wanted to create something modern,” Alex Assouline explained as he showed off an innovative feature he devised. When scanned with an iPhone, the book unlocks virtual access to the magazine’s 500 covers, each splayed out on the screen to be clicked through and explored.