Roughly 600 attendees at the Angel Orensanz Foundation on Thursday, October 22, most of them dressed as one half of a pair, and the person deciding which couple had pulled it off best? Of course, it was Phillipe Blond, a man nobody has ever accused of underdressing.

The party, billed as The Perfect Pair: A PB&J Affair, was Skrewball Whiskey’s pre-Halloween launch for its new Peanut Butter & Strawberry Jelly whiskey, the first real twist on the peanut butter original that Steven and Brittany Yeng introduced in 2018. Skrewball and its co-host CHAIN ran with the sandwich theme about as far as it could go (PB&J cocktails, a PB&J-inspired spread, the works), while Angel & Dren handled the music inside the former synagogue on Norfolk Street, a Gothic Revival relic whose pointed arches did half the Halloween decorating on their own.

Phillipe was there to judge the Dynamic Duo Costume Contest, which, if you know anything about The Blonds, put real pressure on every couple in the building. He and his partner, creative director David Blond, launched the label in 2007 with a push from Patricia Field, and their corsets and bodysuits tend to look like they were dipped in a chandelier. The duo has since built tour costumes for Beyoncé, Madonna, Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj, crusting them in enough crystal to read from the cheap seats.

This is also the label that, in 2018, built an entire New York Fashion Week show around Disney villains and sent Paris Hilton down the runway as Cruella de Vil, a Chihuahua in her arms. “Our shows are theatrical already,” Phillipe told the Associated Press at the time, which was putting it mildly. He has a habit of walking in his own shows, waist-length blond hair and all. A couples costume, in other words, was going to have to work for it.

Six couples made the final round, and the title went to Ani Bollock and John Sterkaj, who came as peanut butter and jelly, which at a launch for a peanut butter and jelly whiskey is either the most obvious idea in the room or the bravest. Phillipe went with bravest. There’s something very Blond about that call. Nobody gets far in their world by playing it subtle, and the house has long preached that you don’t need the hair to be a Blond, just the nerve to commit, even when the thing you’re committing to is a sandwich.

Also spotted: designer Emma Pill, Victoria’s Secret model Kailyn Shepherd and models Ava Sommerset, Haley Salis and Alexis Santiago.

Halloween proper was still nine days off, which made the night a kind of dress rehearsal. Most couples road-test a costume on a few friends and a phone camera, but this crowd had to get past a Blond, and the two who did can probably stop worrying about the 31st.

All photography by Michael Simon/Getty Images for Skrewball Whiskey and Richard Oliver.

‍

‍