Vogue Celebrated Its Surfboard Launch With a Beachy Cocktail Party at Gurney’s Montauk

Last week, Vogue launched its first-ever surfboard collaboration with Jada Stanley of Nusa Indah. For those non-surfers, Stanley has quite the following for her boards, designed with a feminine flourish—some look as though they’ve been wrapped in a delicious floral wallpaper or Palampur upholstery textiles. But when the Vogue collaboration came to be (owing much to Vogue’s resident surfer girl Negar Mohammadi) there was no question as to where the artwork would be sourced: our very own archive, robust with illustrations from some of fashion and art history’s heavy hitters. The resulting three boards were on display last Friday evening at Gurney’s, where a cocktail party was hosted to fête the new trio.

At 6 p.m, just before golden hour in Montauk, New York, guests fresh from Manhattan and Brooklyn arrived on the deck of the resort to take in the views of the Atlantic Ocean. Cocktail tables were draped in white tablecloths and displayed wildflower arrangements from UrbanStems while bottles of Whispering Angel Rosé circulated the room alongside lobster rolls and sliders. In the crowd was a combination of Montauk regulars and seasoned surfers like Cynthia Rowley, her daughter Kit Keenan, and Olmo Schnabel. Those who find balance off the board (with a cocktail in one hand and an iPhone in the other, for example) were also present and accounted for: Jayma Cardoso, Danielle Duboise, Whitney Tingle, and Ezra Williams all turned up to the party.

Peeking out above the crowd were the three 6’1” shortboards, splashed with Vogue covers of yore—not photographs, but illustrations by Eduardo Garcia Benito for our July 15, 1937, cover; Georges Lepape for April 1, 1928; and Salvador Dalí from June 1, 1939. “I flipped through a book of Vogue covers,” explained Stanley, “and was so inspired by all the artwork.” The product made for prime photo ops, and iPhone cameras were in full use just before the sun dipped into the ocean. As the cocktail party wound down, most of the guests fell into one of two camps: those who were headed to an early dinner to rest up for a morning surf session, and those who were just beginning a long, rambunctious night of dancing at the nearby Surf Lodge.