Before awards season officially kicks off with the 2025 Golden Globes, the Hollywood elite had a pre-awards season celebration on Golden Globes eve.
The party going into this year's awards season was the 2025 W Magazine Best Performances Party, which was held at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles on Saturday, Jan. 4, the night before the Golden Globes. The official purpose of the party was to honor some of the year’s most incredible acting talents, but unofficially, it was a place for some of the best dressed in Hollywood to set the tone for fashion in 2025.
Take Kaia Gerber, for instance, who channeled her supermodel mother, Cindy Crawford's, iconic 80s era fashion in a Valentino look by Creative Director Alessandro Michele from the Pre-Fall 2025 collection. The strapless gown mixed polka dot prints—with a bodice made of white fabric with black polka dots and a skirt made of black fabric with white polka dots—and featured a sweetheart neckline and high leg slit and a pop of color in the form of a bright turquoise bow at the hip.
Between the strapless silhouette and the bold polka dot pattern, the dress visually harkened back to one of Crawford's early iconic runway shows in the 80s, when the model wore a strapless black dress with an all-over white polka dot pattern in the Adrienne Vittadini Resort 1986-1987 Fashion Show in New York in August 1986.
This isn't the first time Gerber has opted for a strapless polka dot gown for an event. The model wore custom couture Celine that mixed the two design elements at the 3rd Annual Academy Museum Gala at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on December 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Gerber in custom couture Celine at the Academy Museum Gala at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in 2023.
Gerber's fashion choice for the pre-Golden Globes celebration might have paid homage to the past, but the model was fully in the present at the W Magazine party, where she was snapped hanging out with Sabrina Carpenter, Rachel Sennott, and Ayo Edebiri.
Sabrina Carpenter, Rachel Sennott, Ayo Edebiri and Kaia Gerber hang out at W Magazine's Annual Best Performances Party in Los Angeles.
Of course, after the party, Gerber was probably relieved to be able to strip off the gown in favor something more casual. The self-described "tomboy" says she gravitates toward simple pieces in her off hours.
"I would say I’m a tomboy, but I’ve always been very influenced by the French 'cool girls' like Jane Birkin and Françoise Hardy," Gerber told W Magazine in 2023. "I like simple, comfortable pieces—trousers, sneakers, and blazers."