Sarah Staudinger has a theory about art week in Los Angeles. As a native Angeleno, she has watched the city’s cultural moment grow into something genuinely global—and for too long, nobody had really claimed the fashion side of it as their own. So, on Wednesday night, in the penthouse of Chateau Marmont, she made her case.
Staudinger and her husband Ari Emanuel, the founder of Mari, hosted a cocktail party to raise a glass to the seventh edition of Frieze Los Angeles, welcoming a guest list that fused names from the worlds of art, fashion, and design with Hollywood heavyweights. Orlando Bloom and Nick Kroll caught up near the bar while Rachel Sennott and Love Story’s Dree Hemingway settled in on the couches inside. Out on the terrace, Jeffrey Deitch and Casey Fremont mingled alongside Essence Harden, Djuna Bel, and Nikolai Haas, while Scout Willis, Winnie Harlow, Devendra Banhart, Lily Kwong, Cailin Russo, and Lauren Sanchez moved the packed—and well dressed—crowd.
The occasion also had a debut at its center: a special version of Staud’s Tommy Bag created in collaboration with Merikokeb Berhanu; an Ethiopian-born painter represented by James Cohan gallery, whose work features in the gallery’s presentation at this year’s fair. The signature beaded handbag was reimagined through the lens of Berhanu’s painting Untitled CII (2025), resulting in four unique and ultra limited-edition designs (only 10 of each) priced at $1,300 and available exclusively at the Melrose Avenue flagship.
It’s also Staud’s first time collaborating with an artist on the popular bag. “The fact that Merikokeb gave us permission to take her amazing works, dissect them, and turn them into wearable pieces of art is amazing,” Staudinger told Vogue. “I love that this allows you to buy a piece of art that you may not otherwise be able to afford. And I think the way we took her pieces—and reinterpreted them in beads—was also artistic on its own level. They’re super sick. We have customers who collect the Tommy and just go nuts for them.”
Staudinger’s own art was also everywhere you looked. Ceramic sculptures of Henry—her smiley-faced character, born in her home studio and now woven throughout the Staud universe—were scattered throughout the penthouse. Guests were also handed Henry tokens on arrival while a larger ceramic piece served as a cigarette holder.
Delighted attendees eventually went home with a gift bag containing their own ceramic Henry piece too—and a Staud x Frieze cashmere sweater that will surely be making an appearance on the fair floor all week. “Henry just makes me really happy and I think everyone else kind of feels that,” Staudinger mused.
As the clock struck ten and the crowd made their way onto the next art-y party of the night, Staudinger summed it up simply: “I love Frieze—it’s such a big cultural moment in L.A. They own the art side of it, and I want to be their partner on the fashion side of it. Think LACMA and Gucci…but cooler.”