“Got any plans for New Year’s Eve? If you’re like me, you buy the dress first, then wait until the absolute last minute to figure out where in the world to actually wear it. One year it ended up at a fluorescent-lit Chinese restaurant. In a mall. We’ve all fantasized the ideal New Year’s Eve”, — write: www.hollywoodreporter.com
We’ve all fantasized the ideal New Year’s Eve — revelry, escapism, glamor and a symbolic rinsing of whatever fresh chaos this year dumped on us (2025: heavy on the latter). Champagne wishes, caviar dreams, dancing into oblivion, burning off blini carbs — the whole sparkly delusion.
Maybe, if we’re lucky, we’ve had one or two of those. But adulthood always shows up with its pj’s-and-Netflix reality: underwhelming takeout pizza (sushi if you’re splurging), the opposite end of the ambiance spectrum.
But this year? There is a way out of the takeout doldrums. Bryan Rabin is resurrecting his Black and White Masquerade Ball at The West Hollywood Edition — the follow-up to last year’s Giorgio’s revival — and it just might be the night that restores a little faith in New Year’s Eve magic.
If glam were a language, Bryan Rabin would be its master interpreter. As LA’s king of clubs, he reigned over the city’s early-’90s nightlife in Rick Owens’ avant-garde finery, long after disco melted into House and EDM. The outfits change, the hair changes, the choreography changes — but the primal urge to preen, prance, and get the f— out of our own heads is eternal. Today we call them “influencers,” but before social media, the magnetic ones who drew others like moths to midnight-blue flames were simply “connectors.” Rabin was born for the job.
He’s been a model, a figure skater, a promoter — and over three decades, he’s launched some of LA’s most storied clubs: The Lounge (1990), Prague, Highball, Cherry, Diamond Dogs at H.Wood, and Giorgio’s at The Standard, which resurrected disco for both new and nostalgic crowds until the hotel closed in 2021. Along the way, he produced the 2017 film Freak Show. (He’s always had a weakness for the demi-monde.)
From there, Rabin graduated into luxe-party alchemy: producing private events for W Magazine, Christian Dior, Armani, Harry Winston, Juicy Couture, Paul Smith. His guest lists were a rotating constellation — Madonna, Thierry Mugler, Gwyneth Paltrow, Charlize Theron, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Mick Jagger, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mary J. Blige, Dita Von Teese, Naomi Campbell, Boy George, Daft Punk, and — that unforgettable night — Lupita Nyong’o fresh off her Oscar.
Now Giorgio’s — named after disco godfather Giorgio Moroder — returns for a one-night-only revival, hopefully the beginning of an annual ritual. It’s back at the West Hollywood Edition — fitting, since Ian Schrager, a Studio 54 co-founder, owns the place. The night’s setup: a Black and White Ball (Capote by way of Chanel), two ticketed dinner seatings at the hotel’s Ardor restaurant (champagne and caviar included), and party-only admission running until 2 am
Expect music everywhere. Dinner’s DJ is Daisy O’Dell — producer, director, full-time nightlife polymath. The party’s main spinner is Nicky Siano, one of Studio 54’s original DJs (Donna Summer devotees, assemble). New York Magazine once called him a “legend,” and they weren’t exaggerating. Siano famously worked Bianca Jagger’s 1977 Studio 54 birthday party — yes, the one with the white horse. Opening the dance-floor portion is LA’s own Heidi Lawden, whose cosmic, transportive sets have become mini-pilgrimages for regulars. Together, they’ll usher in 2026.
As for headliners: nightlife icon Susanne Bartsch will co-host, while the incomparable Joey Arias performs — delivering two sets of his avant-garde, operatic, totally inimitable… let’s say “songs.” (You may remember his 1979 SNL appearance with Klaus Nomi, singing backup for David Bowie, or his cabaret turns at Joe’s Pub and Feinstein’s/54 Below.)
Where is Rabin now? After decades in LA, he moved to Palm Springs, then Mérida, Mexico, although he keeps close ties to the friends — and legends — he made along the way. Moroder visited Giorgio’s multiple times; the two developed a tight bond. But no night was more emotional than the moment “I Feel Love” exploded from the DJ booth as all three members of Bananarama, Lisa Stansfield, and Jody Watley lost their minds on the dance floor. Moroder hadn’t made records in years; teary-eyed, he turned to Rabin and said, “They remember.”