Gaga’s Little Christmas Monster

Barneys New York, NYC, November 22nd, 2011. When you enter a contest on Facebook, you don’t actually expect to win, right? Well, I didn’t either. I entered a contest on Facebook to win a golden ticket to the grand unveiling of Barneys Christmas 2011 windows. If you’re familiar with the iconic Barneys New York, you know that they are totally unconventional and have the most whimsical sense of creative direction that’s always straying away from the mainstream (all hail Simon Doonan 🙌🏼). When I think of Barneys, I think of Gossip Girl and what celebrities could possibly be dining at Fred’s at any given moment (I sat next to Usher and Kanye on my 20th birthday). Barneys serves only New York City’s most elite, and to be invited to a party of theirs is the most grandiose honor. I was astonished when I received an email stating:

Hi Little Monsters!

Congratulations! It is my pleasure to inform you that you have won a Golden Ticket to attend the formal unveiling and ribbon cutting for GAGA'S WORKSHOP at Barneys New York, Madison Avenue Flagship.

Truthfully, I had forgotten I even entered the contest! I never gave it a second thought after I hit “Submit”. I had to laugh to myself as I wondered how this was even possible that I won. Then it occurred to me that I was Lady Gaga for Halloween that year, and that was my profile picture when I entered the contest. A pure accident that lead to a beautiful blessing. I have to be honest, though I was over the moon that I was going to a celebrity party, I was nervous that I had to go by myself. ONE golden ticket, no plus one. My 20 year old self was not as open to doing things by myself and making friends on a whim, but I knew this would be one for the books.

My mother and boyfriend dropped me off at Barneys and awaited the window unveiling with the rest of the peasants outside. But not me…tonight I was someone of importance; tonight I was on “the list”. As I entered Barneys, Blake Lively was in front of the step-and-repeat as Jessica Goldberg, Social Media Manager for Barneys, corralled the lucky winners. There were 25 of us regular folk invited to party with NYC’s elite tonight. We were all nervous to be there by ourselves, and from that we were able to make friends.

When we arrived to the event space, the first person I was greeted by was Neil Patrick Harris. I was definitely going to be in my element tonight, there were celebrities at every turn. As I walked through the main room, I was continuously greeted by servers who offered only the finest treats. I was handed a champagne glass of cotton candy sorbet while bubbly was poured over it, and it caused the coolest chemical reaction I have ever seen when the sorbet literally disappeared and turned into a delicious foamy drink. Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Alan Cumming were the life of the party while Lady Gaga ate in solitude and the golden ticket winners ran through this party like a playground. I played my cool and networked with the crowd, after all you never know who you’re talking to.

An hour into the cocktail party, Gaga’s Workshop was open for business. This exclusive group would get to shop the Christmas collection for an hour before the doors were open to the public. As I roamed through the Gaga wonderland, I ran into Neil Patrick Harris again, this time with his husband. Neil had remembered me from before and asked my advice on which ornaments he should buy. I then found myself shopping besides my icon Blake Lively who was with Matthew Settle, and in that moment I was living Gossip Girl. To think how many times they have been in this store, it must practically be a second home to them. I remember reading about Barneys in Gossip Girl when I was in 7th grade, and all of sudden my life came full circle. I’ve never been to Barneys and not seen a celebrity. There is a certain allure and charm that makes it the heartbeat of New York. For one night only, Barneys exposed me to a world I’ve been chasing my whole life. It is experiences like these that make me work towards the life I am trying to achieve. They might not know it yet, but I AM important enough to be on the list of every party at Barneys 😉