“It was like
something
spiritual –
everyone let
go in this
incredible
place and
truly
enjoyed
themselves”How Kim and Kanye
stole Christmas: right,
the annual Kardashian-
Jenner get-togetherAbove: Saloni Lodha
at Holi Saloni with
Dree Hemingway.
Above right: guests
at the three-day
festival. Below:
Naomi Campbell,
in the party spirit,
photographed by
Steven Meisel@KIMKARDASHIAN; NICK KNIGHT; SALONI LODHA; STEVEN MEISEL; MANUELA WIRTH; BANDO BALLET; GETTY IMAGESSaloni Lodha
Fashion designer
If you’re going to celebrate Holi, the
festival of colours, then it has to be in
India. It’s such a happy, vibrant time,
and my friends often said I should
throw my own. In 2017, I decided to go
for it, and it took me a year to plan my
three-day version: Holi Saloni.
Normally, you don’t worry too much
about what people will wear to your
party, but for this event I designed
every woman’s dress – tailor-made for
every figure, a different one for each
day. I even created the kimonos and
sarongs that they wore by the pool.
We dyed 80 different colours of silk.
A cocktail mixologist came from
London, a DJ from Paris, and
a British architect came and
sketched the beautiful mud
huts that local artisans built
for us. My team went out a
month early to taste each
meal; we custom-made the
plates; hand-painted hundreds
of candlesticks; and redid
bathroom tiles in bespoke
patterns. People had no idea
what to expect – adding the
extra dazzle of surprise.
If you have good food and
music, nothing else matters –
everything happens naturally.
Personally, I love to play
world music: African beats
mixed into old Bollywood
hits blending into Cuban tracks. And
whatever the time of day, dosas, thin
Indian pancakes, are a hit. I love how
versatile they are – sometimes I fill them
with avocado and melted cheese, or
chocolate for dessert. At brunch I even
do them with eggs, although classic
masala dosas are my all-time favourite.Diane Keaton Actor
When I was a young girl, my siblings
and I would keenly anticipate the
holiday season, which meant going to
my grandma’s apartment, where she
lived with my aunt. There, all four of us
Hall kids would be handed shiny silver
dollars, which filled us with delight.
There was something about the way
my grandmother would bestow those
gleaming coins – we were in awe. But,
more than the gifts, what will forever
stand out in my memory are the smallspecial moments that we shared
together in those years.
Now, everything is different. In
the days leading up to Christmas,
my whole extended family spend
time handing out supermarket gift cards
to homeless people in the area. Then we
load up the cars and head north to the
sweeping coastline of California. You
could say that our festive tradition is
now simply coming together.
Christmas Day is a movie night. I’m
not much of a cook, but spiced nuts are
a speciality of mine. People gradually
find their favourites among the glazed
almonds, cashews and pecans. My
favourite is the almond!
When you throw a party, something
is always destined to go wrong, so you
should surrender to that. I leave the
music selection in the hands of my
children, Duke and Dexter. You might
think that sounds like a recipe for
disaster, but for me it is the best
learning experience of all time.Peggy Gou DJ & producer
When I started out, I remember I used
to DJ for, like, two people, then 20, then- My show The Pleasure Gardens
in Finsbury Park this August was the
first time I threw my own headline
party, and 4,000 people showed up. It
was unbelievable. That experience was
something I will never forget.
The first three tracks you play are the
most important, because that’s when
people are judging whether the night
is going to be fun or not. What those
songs will be will depend on the crowd,
the time of day, the country... I tailor
what I play to the different energies.
Naomi Campbell
Model & philanthropist
In 2012, I had a dream that I threw a
party in India. I envisioned everything:
the decorations, the atmosphere...
So I called my beloved friend, the late
production designer Michael Howells,
and my diehard crew, Desiree and
Omar, and we got to work bringing
that vision to life at a 15th-century
fortress in the Blue City of Jodhpur.
That’s what I’d do with Michael, I’d
call him in the middle of the night and
say, “I have an idea.” He always
maintained that we could make my
dream a reality – so we did.It was a three-day party and we lit up
the fortress from top to toe. We flew
everybody in from all over the world –
more than 200 guests, John Galliano,
Kate Moss and Vivienne Westwood
among them – and immersed them all
in a complete cocoon, so that they
didn’t have to worry or think about
anything, and made them feel as
though they were in India in the 1930s.
We had Chaka Khan, Diana Ross
and Buddy Guy come to perform; food
courts with delicacies from all across
the world; fireworks coming from every
angle that the eye could see. We had
DJs from the Ibiza club DC-10, fire-
breathers and 45 different circus acts.
Most importantly, we employed all of
the people in the town so that they
would feel included. Gaj Singh, the
Maharaja of Jodhpur, who made this
all possible, came with his whole
family. I’ll be forever grateful to him. It
was magical. I love to see people enjoy
themselves, and to share the same
experiences that I’ve been lucky enough
to have in my life with the people
I love. It was like something spiritual- everyone let go in this incredible
place and truly enjoyed themselves.
Duckie Thot Model
As a general rule, I hate celebrating my
birthday – it just never lives up to
expectation. There has only ever been
one exception: a couple of years ago,
when I decided to throw a last-minute
party at Sixty SoHo for my 21st. It was
the best. People were dancing in a big
circle and it broke out into dance battles- everyone was having such a laugh.
A few hours in, I got on Instagram
Live and extended the invite to everyone
watching. Hundreds of people showed
up, and it got so rowdy that we had to
move the fun elsewhere. Luckily, my
friend Richie Akiva owns 1Oak club,
so he opened the doors for us – though
it got wild in there, too.
I had no idea I was capable of
throwing a party that big. It was my
first year living in New York, which
made it all the more special, and it
helped that it was so spontaneous,
because there was no pressure.
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