It was lunchtime on a Wednesday, but the Lowell Hotel on Manhattan’s Upper East Side was packed with bloggers, Instagram celebrities, models in colorful fur vests, and bottles from Bon Jovi’s new line of rosé. At the center of the spectacle was Andrew Warren, the 25-year-old designer and member of the “Snap Pack,” known primarily for his over-the-top Instagram and close ties to Tiffany Trump.. This high tea, complete with wine and caviar, was an effort to change that, a celebration for the fall collection of his fashion line, Just Drew, which launched in 2016.
Trump was absent, but several members of Warren’s cohort were there, including Stephanie Seymour’s son (and Page Six veteran) Peter Brant Jr., who mingled among friends, while New York society fixture Peter Davis mused about the Lowell’s past life as the not-so-secret meeting place for businessmen to take lunch breaks with their mistresses. Ansel Elgort’s older brother, Warren, walked around snapping photos on his wind-up camera while baker Stephanie Nass hand-fed a piece of her paisley cake to Warren. (The cake, it should be noted, matched her sequined paisley dress.)
While Warren’s designs are usually spotted on Manhattan’s latest class of society kids (in addition to the man himself, who wore one of his custom sequined bombers to Wednesday’s event), Warren insists he designs for any and all women.
“I won’t really cap an age limit on my brand,” he said in a phone call ahead of the event. “I just want any woman or girl who is confident with themselves to be able to wear that. Even my grandma, whose age I won’t say, she will wear my tweed jackets and look really good in them.”
Any passersby to Warren’s Instagram will quickly pick up on his wide-ranging connections. One week (as in last week) he’s in New York with Lindsay Lohan and Abigail Breslin; other times he’s out partying with wild child Bella Thorne. His roster of friends are also his models, and perhaps his best form of advertisement.
“I just had so many girlfriends growing up in New York, literally like 40 best friends, and they all had different styles from different parts of New York and that really inspired me,” he said. “I dress all different types of girls, from Bella Thorne to my best friend Danielle Naftali who will wear it to her real-estate development office every day, so I really like to say that it has a piece for everyone.”
Though without the name recognition of some of his famous girlfriends, Warren occasionally finds his way into the gossip press, whether claiming to be the Kris Jenner of his posse or doing damage control after his friends spontaneously got married in the middle of his Las Vegas birthday bash. But he said he’d rather you know him as Andrew Warren, fashion designer. His grandfather David Warren was a garment manufacturer and for Warren, the ideal Page Six headline would be about following in his footsteps in the fashion industry.
“My family was in fashion, it’s something I’m passionate about. I want to make them proud,” he said. “I would like to show that angle on it more than just who I’m friends with and who I’m dressing.”
At the luncheon Warren was surrounded by his posse, from both of his parents to a selection of his 40 best friends, but even some skeptics seemed convinced by his claims that his business is more than a hobby.
As the afternoon wore on Warren table-hopped around the room, thanking and giving cheek kisses to his guests before they left with tins of caviar and a bit of a Bon Jovi-induced buzz. Just Drew is still young, and all-sequined-everything is not for everyone, but it seems to align well with his Upper East Side muses and friends, all of whom are happy to promote their designer buddy on Instagram and beyond.
The next steps for the burgeoning designer, he said, are to take Just Drew to the next level, developing the company into a full-fledged lifestyle brand, equipped with fragrances, accessories, and more. Because being Andrew Warren isn’t just about wearing a sequined bomber; it’s a lifestyle.
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