Inside the Vogue Arabia Lapérouse Dinner at Paris Fashion Week

Aisha Almamy, Mo Al Turki, Winnie Harlow, Siran Manoukian, Sara Sampaio at Lapérouse for a private dinner hosted by Vogue Arabia. Photo Nick Delasoul

Lapérouse, located on the banks of the River Seine in the 6th arrondissement, set a luxurious, Parisian scene for an intimate dinner for friends and family of Vogue Arabia. Editor-in-chief Manuel Arnaut hosted the soirée during Fall 2019 couture fashion week. Under the discerning eye of entrepreneur Benjamin Patou, what is perhaps Paris’s most historic restaurant, originally established in 1766, Lapérouse has only recently been restored to its original splendor–diamond-scratched mirrors, chandeliers, and all. Guests, including Michèle Lamy and Tamara Ralph and Michael Russo–who staged their Fall 2019 couture show at the British Embassy but a few hours earlier–joined Arnaut and some thirty guests in the Astrolabe private dining room. “It’s a labyrinth in here,” exclaimed a delighted footwear designer Amina Muaddi upon arrival in the gilded salon bathed in a soft light and enjoying a cool breeze from the open windows peeking out onto the river bank.

The opulent façade of Lapérouse. The restaurant is restored to its original splendor under Benjamin Patou. Photo Nick Delasoul

Vogue Arabia cover star Winnie Harlow alongside fellow models Sara Sampaio, Andrés Velenscoso, designer Cherine Magrabi, couturier Tamara Ralph, Balmain hair creative director Nabil Harlow, Michael Coorangel and Jean-Pierre Calvangrac, and artists Allanah Starr and Taher Asad-Bakhtiari dined on sea bream carpaccio, poultry, girolles, and aromatic herbs, while desert was a irresistible melange of strawberries with gariguettes, milk foam, and blown meringue. The culinary direction is signed chef Jean-Pierre Vitago while deserts are courtesy of pastry chef Christophe Michalak, and creative direction comes by the expert hand of Cordelia de Castellane (she of Baby Dior and Dior Maison). Lapérouse is once again attracting those in search of a divine art de vivre.