Lifestyle

The 'Met Gala of L.A.:' What attendees wore to Born X Raised's 10th annual Sadie Hawkins dance

Published

1 year ago

December 2, 2024

The 'Met Gala of L.A.:' What attendees wore to Born X Raised's 10th annual Sadie Hawkins dance

By 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, hundreds of people were crowded outside the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel, waiting to get inside one of Los Angeles’ most anticipated events of the year: Born X Raised‘s annual Sadie Hawkins Winter Formal.

Since 2014, the beloved L.A. streetwear brand has hosted a holiday season affair where attendees come fitted in their freshest formal looks — some of which they plan months in advance — along with a date (or a group of friends) who matches their fly. Born X Raised co-founders Chris “Spanto” Printup and Alex “2Tone” Erdmann held the first Sadie Hawkins dance at a small wood-paneled hall in Highland Park with simple balloons and streamers. It’s since evolved into a F.O.M.O-inducing, invite-only function where both supporters and A-list celebrities cross their fingers to slip inside before the venue reaches capacity.

“It’s like L.A.’s unofficial New Year’s Eve,” says Erdmann, who wore a champagne-colored suit to this year’s event. “This is the party that you drive around trying to find. Everyone comes here.”

With a surprise performance from rapper YG and another from a mariachi artist, last year’s event was dedicated to Printup, who died in a car accident in June 2023. Erdmann says he considered canceling the event following his business partner’s death — the party was Printup’s “baby” — but he decided to push forward because it’s become a festive tradition for so many Angelenos every November.

This year’s gathering marked the 10-year anniversary . To celebrate the milestone, Erdmann and organizers constructed a wedding chapel where guests could tie the knot under the tagline “Born X Raised Marriages Last Forever, This Is Legally Binding.” There was also a photo booth decorated with a nostalgic balloon arch and dozens of red roses, which guests filtered through as DJs including Kitty Cash and Giselle Peppers played sets in the background. The soundtrack for the evening was Kendrick Lamar’s latest album, “GNX,” West Coast classics and other party bangers.

We caught up with attendees at the high-energy party, which one person called “the Met Gala of L.A.,” to ask them about their outfit inspiration. These interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

Nyles Washington

(Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)

Age: 28

Neighborhood: Mid-City

Have you been to this party before?
This is my first time, but I’m familiar with Born X Raised.

Tell us about your outfit. I went to Goodwill. I knew that whatever I found I was going to look good in it. I got everything but the hat and the shoes from there.

I’m from Houston. My girlfriend got me these Harley-Davidson cowboy boots. My hat is from Texas and it says my name inside of it.

Why do you think this event is so special?
My good friend is helping out with everything. I’ve heard that it’s really insane, but once you get in, it’s super worth it.

Queenie Sateen and Anatole Heger

Age:
Sateen: [Declined to answer]

Neighborhood:
Sateen: Hollywood

Have you been to this party before?
Sateen: No, but my friend comes every year and said it’s fun.

Tell me about your outfit.
Sateen: I was just trying to match my boyfriend. It’s giving funeral. I wanted to be [rudest] at the funeral.

Lorenz Christopher

A man with a mustache wearing purple patterned scarves

Age: 26

Neighborhood: Downtown L.A.

Have you been to this party before? I’ve been here like four times.

Tell us about your outfit. I just came back from Japan, so I had to cop Kapital out there. I have Ed Hardy on, a one-of-one with a rhinestone embellishment on the back, and I have a gold chain with Jesus on it. Shout out to God.

Why do you think this event is so special? The people. The vibes. The brand itself. Shout out to Spanto and shout out to all of the homies who work for them as well.

Kacey Littleton

A person in a mask dressed in red and white, including white gloves

Age: 25

Neighborhood: Echo Park

Have you been to this party before? I had a couple of friends say I should come, so I came.

Tell us about your outfit. This was kind of loosely inspired by English horse riding. I got the chaps on and the riding boots. I was just feeling like royalty. The mask brings a little twist like I’m at some secret party. It’s like the movie “Eyes Wide Shut.” I already owned this. I like to keep it pretty crazy and have a bit of spice every day. It keeps me going.

Why do you think this event is so special? It just brings a great group of people together. I recognize a lot of people here and I ran into a lot of friends, so it was really cool seeing that crossover from my own life, but also this event.

Blair Quinones

Age: 27

Neighborhood: Altadena

Have you been to this party before? I’ve been once like three years ago. I wore Moschino last year.

Tell us about your outfit. I wanted to wear gold jewelry, so I planned to wear an all lace dress, but I found this gold one in my closest and thought it was a little more classy. My sister gave it to me years ago.

Why do you think this event is so special? I feel like the people who are from L.A. are embracing it more than ever because there is a lot to be prideful about. And then of course, the people who knew Spanto are celebrating him. I didn’t know him personally, but my friends did and so there’s just so much appreciation for him.

Zackariah Arceyut

A man with a mustache in a coat, tie and baggy pants.

Age: 25

Neighborhood: Boyle Heights

Have you been to this party before? I’ve been at least five times.

Tell us about your outfit. It’s basically a mariachi-inspired outfit. My jacket is from a Mexican-owned L.A. brand called Vertical Authority. The studs on it remind me of my best friend’s [heritage]. He’s from Southeast Asia. So my outfit is like intertwining my culture — I’m half Mexican, half Nicaraguan — with my best friend’s culture.

Why do you think this event is so special? I love that it brings multiple cultures together and everybody’s having a good time. There’s never any issues. And I love how they are honoring Spanto. I think it’s beautiful that we can continue this in his name. It’s one of the ways we can continue to honor him and have so much love under one roof.

Dime Jones

Age: 32

Neighborhood: Leimert Park

Have you been to this party before? I’ve been three times.

Tell us about your outfit. My outfit inspo was Fran Lebowitz. Strong woman making moves.

Why do you think this event is so special? I think it gives L.A. a form of culture. L.A. is so spread out, so you don’t get to see people, their style and how they’re dressing, so this is a great way to bring people together at the end of the year.

Copelan Cash and Kennady Schneider

A man in hat and sunglasses with a woman wearing burgundy sleeves

Age:
Cash: 30
Schneider: 27

Neighborhood:
Cash: Fillipinotown
Schneider: Crenshaw

Have you been to this party before?
Cash: I’ve been here six times.
Schneider: This is my first one.

Tell us about your outfit.
Cash: I have on pinstripe with the white loafers.
Schneider: I wanted to wear something elegant and timeless.

Why do you think this event is so special?
Cash: Born X Raised is family. Spanto and all the homies. It’s my community. It’s my culture.

Jermaine Mitchell

Age: 32

Neighborhood: Downtown L.A.

Have you been to this party before? This is my third year in a row.

Tell us about your outfit. I’m wearing Theo Official. They dress me a lot. I wanted something festive to wear.

Why do you think this event is so special? I love the community. I love coming together as a group and looking fabulous.

Brisedia Leon

A woman with lots of jewelry closes her eyes and smiles

Age: 27

Neighborhood: Long Beach

Have you been to this party before? This is my first time. I learned about the Born X Raised brand a year ago from my friends.

Tell us about your outfit. I got my look from small L.A. businesses. I want to stand out. I got this necklace … from a brand called Jiggly Junk.

Dame

Age: 47

Neighborhood: Los Angeles

Have you been to this party before? I’ve been before. I’m friends with the owners.

Tell us about your outfit. You’ve got to get dressed up, so I wore a suit.

Why do you think this event is so special? I just think people need to be cultured and come together.

Freddie Gibbs, Grammy-nominated rapper

A man with large white-framed glasses, shiny pink coat, white shirt and black tie

Have you been to this party before? I’ve been at least 5 or 6 times. Spanto was one of my best friends.

Tell us about your outfit. I knew everybody was going to dress in dark colors, so I wanted to stand out.

Why do you think this event is so special? Because of Spanto. He was the nuts and bolts of all of this [stuff]. He brought all these people together. He [was] a real star. I was at his memorial last year. We’re doing it for him every year.

Zolee Griggs, actor

A woman in a long red-and-white sequined dress with red handbag

Have you been to this party before? I’ve been four or five times.

Tell us about your outfit. I wanted to go old-school Hollywood, dramatic sequins.

Why do you think this event is so special? I think what makes it special are all the L.A. natives who are still able to make it out, and I love that it’s the one time of the year for L.A. people to actually dress up.

Guapdad 4000, rapper

A man in dark sunglasses and a furry red garment

Have you been to this party before? I’ve been going since I moved to L.A. eight years ago.

Tell us about your outfit. I didn’t even want to go outside because something weird happened to me after this event last year, so my energy was [messed] up. I put this [stuff] together last minute because the universe is always going to find a way to remind me that I’m a great [person].

Why do you think this event is so special? I was introduced to it as something my musician, creative and fashion friends just went to. It was already established. The culture was already there, so I had to catch up.

Lifestyle

Mundane, magic, maybe both — a new book explores ‘The Writer’s Room’

Published

5 hours ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

Mundane, magic, maybe both — a new book explores ‘The Writer’s Room’

There’s a three-story house in Baltimore that looks a bit imposing. You walk up the stone steps before even getting up to the porch, and then you enter the door and you’re greeted with a glass case of literary awards. It’s The Clifton House, formerly home of Lucille Clifton.

The National Book Award-winning poet lived there with her husband, Fred, starting in 1967 until the bank foreclosed on the house in 1980. Clifton’s daughter, Sidney Clifton, has since revived the house and turned it into a cultural hub, hosting artists, readings, workshops and more. But even during a February visit, in the mid-afternoon with no organized events on, the house feels full.

The corner of Lucille Clifton’s bedroom, where she would wake up and write in the mornings

Andrew Limbong/NPR

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Andrew Limbong/NPR

“There’s a presence here,” Clifton House Executive Director Joël Díaz told me. “There’s a presence here that sits at attention.”

Sometimes, rooms where famous writers worked can be places of ineffable magic. Other times, they can just be rooms.

Princeton University Press

Katie da Cunha Lewin is the author of the new book, The Writer’s Room: The Hidden Worlds That Shape the Books We Love, which explores the appeal of these rooms. Lewin is a big Virginia Woolf fan, and the very first place Lewin visited working on the book was Monk’s House — Woolf’s summer home in Sussex, England. On the way there, there were dreams of seeing Woolf’s desk, of retracing Woolf’s steps and imagining what her creative process would feel like. It turned out to be a bit of a disappointment for Lewin — everything interesting was behind glass, she said. Still, in the book Lewin writes about how she took a picture of the room and saved it on her phone, going back to check it and re-check it, “in the hope it would allow me some of its magic.”

Let’s be real, writing is a little boring. Unlike a band on fire in the recording studio, or a painter possessed in their studio, the visual image of a writer sitting at a desk click-clacking away at a keyboard or scribbling on a piece of paper isn’t particularly exciting. And yet, the myth of the writer’s room continues to enrapture us. You can head to Massachusetts to see where Louisa May Alcott wrote Little Women. Or go down to Florida to visit the home of Zora Neale Hurston. Or book a stay at the Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald Museum in Alabama, where the famous couple lived for a time. But what, exactly, is the draw?

Previously unknown poems show Woolf as a fun aunt. She's pictured above in 1902.

Lewin said in an interview that whenever she was at a book event or an author reading, an audience question about the writer’s writing space came up. And yes, some of this is basic fan-driven curiosity. But also “it started to occur to me that it was a central mystery about writing, as if writing is a magic thing that just happens rather than actually labor,” she said.

In a lot of ways, the book is a debunking of the myths we’re presented about writers in their rooms. She writes about the types of writers who couldn’t lock themselves in an office for hours on end, and instead had to find moments in-between to work on their art. She covers the writers who make a big show of their rooms, as a way to seem more writerly. She writes about writers who have had their homes and rooms preserved, versus the ones whose rooms have been lost to time and new real estate developments. The central argument of the book is that there is no magic formula to writing — that there is no daily to-do list to follow, no just-right office chair to buy in order to become a writer. You just have to write.

Lifestyle

Bruce Johnston Retiring From The Beach Boys After 61 Years

Published

6 hours ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

Bruce Johnston Retiring From The Beach Boys After 61 Years

Bruce Johnston
I’m Riding My Last Wave With The Beach Boys

Published
March 4, 2026
6:28 PM PST

Bruce Johnston is riding off into the California sunset … at least for now.

The Beach Boys legend announced Wednesday he’s stepping away from touring after six decades with the iconic band. The 83-year-old revealed in a statement to Rolling Stone he’s hanging up his touring hat to focus on what he calls part three of his long music career.

beach boys getty 4

“It’s time for Part Three of my lengthy musical career!” Johnston said. “I can write songs forever, and wait until you hear what’s coming!!! As my major talent beyond singing is songwriting, now is the time to get serious again.”

Johnston famously stepped in for co-founder Brian Wilson in 1965 for live performances, becoming a staple of the Beach Boys’ touring lineup ever since. Now, he says he’s shifting gears toward songwriting and even some speaking engagements … with occasional touring member John Stamos helping him craft what he’ll talk about onstage.

beach boys getty

“I might even sing ‘Disney Girls’ & ‘I Write The Songs!!’” he teased.

But don’t call it a full-on farewell tour just yet. Johnston made it clear he’s not shutting the door completely, saying he’s excited to reunite with the band for special occasions, including their upcoming July 2-4 shows at the Hollywood Bowl as part of the Beach Boys’ 2026 tour. The run celebrates both the 60th anniversary of “Pet Sounds” and America’s 250th birthday.

beach boys getty 3

“This isn’t goodbye, it’s see you soon,” he wrote. “I am forever grateful to be a part of the Beach Boys musical legacy.”

Lifestyle

On the brink of death, a woman is saved by a stranger and his family

Published

17 hours ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

On the brink of death, a woman is saved by a stranger and his family

In 1982, Jean Muenchrath was injured in a mountaineering accident and on the brink of death when a stranger and his family went out of their way to save her life.

Jean Muenchrath

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Jean Muenchrath

In early May 1982, Jean Muenchrath and her boyfriend set out on a mountaineering trip in the Sierra Nevada, a mountain range in California. They had done many backcountry trips in the area before, so the terrain was somewhat familiar to both of them. But after they reached one of the summits, a violent storm swept in. It began to snow heavily, and soon the pair was engulfed in a blizzard, with thunder and lightning reverberating around them.

“Getting struck and killed by lightning was a real possibility since we were the highest thing around for miles and lightning was striking all around us,” Muenchrath said.

To reach safer ground, they decided to abandon their plan of taking a trail back. Instead, using their ice axes, they climbed down the face of the mountain through steep and icy snow chutes.

They were both skilled at this type of descent, but at one particularly difficult part of the route, Muenchrath slipped and tumbled over 100 feet down the rocky mountain face. She barely survived the fall and suffered life-threatening injuries.

When Olivia Joffrey's dad was too sick to attend her sixth-grade Father's Day softball game, her unsung hero, Bob Scowcroft, showed up to support her.

This was before cellular or satellite phones, so calling for help wasn’t an option. The couple was forced to hike through deep snow back to the trailhead. Once they arrived, Muenchrath collapsed in the parking lot. It had been five days since she’d fallen.

”My clothes were bloody. I had multiple fractures in my spine and pelvis, a head injury and gangrene from a deep wound,” Muenchrath said.

Not long after they reached the trailhead parking lot, a car pulled in. A man was driving, with his wife in the passenger seat and their baby in the back. As soon as the man saw Muenchrath’s condition, he ran over to help.

”He gently stroked my head, and he held my face [and] reassured me by saying something like, ‘You’re going to be OK now. I’ll be right back to get you,’” Muenchrath remembered.

For the first time in days, her panic began to lift.

“My unsung hero gave me hope that I’d reach a hospital and I’d survive. He took away my fears.”

Within a few minutes, the man had unpacked his car. His wife agreed to stay back in the parking lot with their baby in order to make room for Muenchrath, her boyfriend and their backpacks.

The man drove them to a nearby town so that the couple could get medical treatment.

“I remember looking into the eyes of my unsung hero as he carried me into the emergency room in Lone Pine, California. I was so weak, I couldn’t find the words to express the gratitude I felt in my heart.”

Joann Moschella had just been hit by a car when an unlikely hero came to her rescue.

The gratitude she felt that day only grew. Now, nearly 45 years later, she still thinks about the man and his family.

”He gave me the gift of allowing me to live my life and my dreams,” Muenchrath said.

At some point along the way, the man gave Muenchrath his contact information. But in the chaos of the day, she lost it and has never been able to find him.

”If I knew where my unsung hero was today, I would fly across the country to meet him again. I’d hug him, buy him a meal and tell him how much he continues to mean to me by saving my life. Wherever you are, I say thank you from the depths of my being.”

My Unsung Hero is also a podcast — new episodes are released every Tuesday. To share the story of your unsung hero with the Hidden Brain team, record a voice memo on your phone and send it to myunsunghero@hiddenbrain.org.