The parallels between fine dining and ready-to-wear are many: intricately conceived designs are then exacted with precision, colors and textures are used to create depth, and the end result leaves people gleeful. Therefore, who better to partner during New York Fashion Week than 2024 CFDA / VOGUE Fashion Fund nominee Jackson Wiederhoeft and 2023 Young Chef Award recipient Telly Justice of HAGS for a once-in-a-lifetime dinner on the runway.
On the eve of Wiederhoeft's spring-summer 2025 collection we spoke with the designer along with Justice and co-founder and sommelier of HAGS Camille Lindsley to get inside their heads on their ethos and approach, who they'd love to create something for, and how they view the intersection of gastronomy and fashion.
What 3 words define the Wiederhoeft aesthetic?
Modern nostalgia
You bring drama to everyday dressing – why is this important to you?
I think what we do at Wiederhoeft is inherently and spiritually theatrical but ultimately what I know is that work shines brightest in the light of day. So even though there is drama, I don't want people to feel like they're inhabiting a character. I want them to feel like they're inhabiting themselves in a dramatic way. I think that is very Wiederhoeft to be a dramatic version of yourself.
How would you define New York’s dining scene?
I heard it would take 22 years to eat at every restaurant in New York and that's very New York.
What do you look for in cuisine?
A cheeseburger, preferably. I also have a major sweet tooth. So red meat and candy.
How do you view the relationship between the runway and fine dining?
Well, for my runway show, they are one in the same. We're going to transform the runway into a fine dining experience. People these days are saying "She ate," and we're literally going to eat on the runway, and then we're going to EAT on the runway. We're going to leave no crumbs in either sense.
Dream dinner party guest(s)?
Mary Magdalene, Wilhelmina Slater, Cruella de Vil, Georgette the Poodle, Andy Warhol, Alexander Calder, Elsa Schiaparelli.
Who is your dream subject to dress / create a look for?
Similar list. Yoko Ono, would be great. I really want to dress Frances McDormand and Philip Glass.
Three words for the HAGS dining ethos?
Intentionality, curiosity, irreverence
You bring drama with your plating – what’s the process like when conceiving a dish?
Telly Justice: Our menu writing process is hyper-collaborative. What ends up on the plate is often the result of innumerable conversations between myself and our very talented team. We probably spend as much time talking about food as we do cooking it. But so many voices going into the creative process can lead to conceptual ambiguity if we’re not careful.
Having well-defined values and sources of aesthetic inspiration is important to the process. So we end up talking a lot about food, but also we discuss books by Sarah Schulman, installation pieces by Robert Irwin, John Waters movies, and core sense memories. We share with one another, and listen intently to one another. It all contributes to what a HAGS dish is: simultaneously very vulnerable but also immediately relatable and welcoming, never quite belonging to any one person or place.
How are you able to balance the theatrical aspects in a dish?
TJ: From a back of house perspective, we lead with deliciousness first and always. A good idea always has to service how good something tastes.
Camille Lindsley: The way in which we present a dish to the guest will always shape someone’s expectations as they are about to eat a course. I find that it’s important to tow a careful line between giving guests enough information that they don’t feel in the dark, but not too much information that they feel overwhelmed and can’t discover the dish for themselves. Wine pairings are such a great tool in helping coax certain flavors and aromas out of a dish that we want to balance or emphasize!
How would you define New York’s fashion scene?
CL: There’s a unique friction in NYC and it’s fashions that are between function and form. NYC is notoriously obsessed with footwear because we are on our feet, walking, much more than most cities. We live in the Lower East Side, a place where the more distance between your feet and the dirty sidewalks is both necessary and chic. I’m endlessly fascinated with the drive to make these necessary choices in footwear, clothing, etc. fashionable, but how New Yorkers will always covet the impractical fashions as being the ultimate luxury like tiny bags, stilettos, restrictive things you cannot Citi bike in but do anyway.
What do you look for in fashion?
TJ: I feel like I’m at war with my body, always. So I’m fascinated with fashion as an art form and a craft because fashion can liberate you from the tension of being in your body, or it can amplify it. I look for fashion that is reverent of the body. I love designers that are able to synthesize new relationships between how clothes feel and how they look. Clothes that are able to bring you closer to your true self, beyond simple comfort, excite me.
How do you view the relationship between the runway and fine dining?
CL: The runway and fine dining both represent aspirational aspects of fashion and food. There’s something so wonderful and imaginative about getting to see what models are wearing in a couture show in the same way that a carefully conceived amuse bouche is. Is this practical clothing or food to be consumed and worn on any day? Of course not. But they represent a fantasy world in which we can dream of being impractical and fabulous, and in a sense, that fantasy is necessary.
TJ: Fashion and dining are so similar in that they both marry form and function in relation to a person’s body. People need to eat to survive, and we are forced to wear clothes. In both cases, much of our day to day interactions with these mediums tend towards the utilitarian. And there’s nothing wrong with that at all. I love a good bacon egg and cheese and a well-fitted pair of jeans. But excellent food and beautifully crafted clothing can make you feel important emotions, introduce new thoughts and help you access a certain power of being in your body. Food and fashion transform that which is necessary into something ethereal and otherworldly.
Outside of [Jackson] Wiederhoeft, who’s wardrobe would you want to raid / wear?
CL: David Bowie! I have always been obsessed with the 70s/80s androgynous glam rocker wardrobe and his still reigns supreme.
TJ: Divine. The daring choices she made created so much space for people like me to feel free in our self expression. I would have loved to thumb through her closet.
Who is your dream subject to eat / create a meal for?
Amanda Lepore! We spot her in the neighborhood from time to time and she is the ultimate "it girl" in our opinion.
Hero image: Composite - Weiderhoeft / Jackson Wiederhoeft & Morgan Levy / Camille Lindsley and Telly Justice of HAGS
Thumb image: Wiederhoeft / Jackson Wiederhoeft
