West rocking Vuitton last night.Photo: Getty Images
Are there always scantily clad go-go dancers gyrating among the luxury goods at the Louis Vuitton flagship on 57th Street? We’re guessing not — but there were last night for Kanye West’s 30th birthday party. There was also John Legend, who corralled the five levels of exuberant partiers into a happy-birthday sing-a-long for the dapper birthday boy while Diddy, Jay-Z, Pharrel Williams, Jermaine Dupri, and Mariah Carey hung out onstage and off. Fall Out Boy was there but left early (except Pete Wentz, who stayed on with Ashlee); Gabrielle Union and Ashanti came late. On the well-guarded fourth floor, socialites in short shorts were petting Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker’s endless tattoos. He played show-and-tell.
“My first tattoo was a set of bones, because this super-cool skateboarder I worshipped had it,” he told us. “And because it was my nickname; I was a skinny kid.” Barker and West originally bonded over a reality show. “We were standing in an elevator in an L.A. radio station years ago, and he introduced himself because he loved my Itilia sofa and furniture set he saw on MTV’s Cribs,” Barker said. The performance at Louis Vuitton ended quickly, and the A-listers piled into SUVs and snuck downtown to Tenjune, where a sweaty, laser-lit show with burlesque dancers warmed up the young crowd for West’s encore performance, which included Usher, Diddy, Fabolous, two becandled birthday cakes, and a family-sized bottle of Moët. Did West enjoy his night? “Having the Clipse play in the Louis Vuitton store was a lot of fun,” he said, understating the case. —Genevieve Leon
