Vogue’s annual First Friday party brought Met Gala weekend to Times Square on Friday evening, when the magazine hosted its kickoff event at Madame Tussauds on 42nd Street.
Isha Ambani was among the attendees, wearing a handcrafted custom look by Manish Malhotra x Swadesh. The party was presented by Google and Uber Eats and drew its usual place as the quintessential opening-night gathering for the weekend.
The setting gave the night its edge: inside Madame Tussauds, the waxwork museum in the middle of one of New York’s busiest corridors, the event marked the start of a stretch that draws fashion, celebrities and brands into the same orbit. That is what made First Friday more than another party on the calendar. It was the point where the city’s most visible fashion weekend began to shift into motion.
The only real question now is how far the rest of Met Gala weekend will carry that momentum. First Friday set the tone, and Ambani’s appearance made clear that the guest list was already leaning into the kind of high-profile, heavily styled moment the weekend is built to produce.