Fashion Month is no longer just about the runway—it’s a stage for couture, collections, and now, campaigns. On the Thursday before Fashion Week, acclaimed designer Nili Lotan set the tone with an intimate gathering at Café Carlyle to fête her Fall 2025 campaign.

The campaign’s core is clear: rock and roll and handbags. While those two concepts don’t traditionally go hand in hand, Lotan makes them sing. “Photographed by Gray Sorrenti, the new campaign featuring The Kills captures everything that defines my brand—an unfiltered connection to music, individuality, and the free-spirited eclecticism of the seventies that still resonates today,” Lotan tells Vogue. “I’ve always loved their music, but it’s more than that: the way they move, the way they perform, channels the same raw energy and rebellious spirit of seventies icons that inspires me. They’re honest, untamed in the best way, unapologetically themselves—on stage and off. That authenticity, that wild edge, is what I look for in my clothes and in my campaigns. It’s playful, it’s real, it’s rock and roll at its core.”

The motif of fearless self-expression through music and design carries throughout—from the images of The Kills to the collection’s dynamic accessories to the eclectic guest list that gathered for the evening.

In the cabaret-inspired space, influential figures across fashion, music, and design mingled over dirty martinis, caviar-topped blinis, and mini grilled cheeses. Maggie Rogers, Laura Prepon, Beck, and Derek Blasberg dotted the crowd before the soundtrack of soft jazz gave way to The Kills, who delivered a true rock-and-roll performance to close the night. “With The Kills, this campaign doesn’t just nod to the music scene—it lives in it,” Lotan says. “To see that spirit embodied right in front of me is epic, and I’m deeply grateful for this connection.”