The Good, The Weird & The Genius At Julia Fox’s Music Video Premiere Party

Julia Fox has been an actress, a model, a dominatrix, a muse, a singer, an author, and a short-film director; as of May 9, she’s also a music-video star. After releasing her single “Down the Drain” earlier this month, Fox held a party in celebration of the accompanying visuals at the Weylin, a massive, gilded former bank on Broadway in Williamsburg. Things… got weird.

The night of oddities was supposed to start at 9 p.m. with the debut of the music video. When I arrive, there’s a countdown clock putting the release of the video at 11 p.m. Surveying the room, those on the list are very much Fox’s fan base. Piercings and tattoos are the norm, as are leather ensembles with G-strings riding up over the top. Only about 40% of the people in the room have both eyebrows, and the other 60% are wearing sunglasses inside. Pounding house music plays while the crowd mingles. Ironically, weaving between guests wearing velcro underwear and gimp suits is a team of simply dressed staff passing posh canapés and desserts like puff pastries and small bits of fudge.

Mark, a photographer better known as the Cobrasnake, spots me across the main room and says hello; we’ve just worked together on a story covering Met Gala afterparties, and this is a very big shift. While he’s snapping photos of someone in a Catwoman costume, I notice a chained-off installation of two mannequins dressed as dominatrixes. One has a riding crop in hand, the other is on all fours in a pile of trash. Both wear blonde wigs. The only thing that breaks my focus on the piece is a man who walks in wearing sunglasses and a plastic Brooks Brothers garment bag.

For a moment, I consider that this may be a fever dream, but Mark walks up again to introduce me to Bloody Clip, a musical artist eager to support Fox, whom she calls “the queen of aesthetics.” “I love how she put everything together here,” she says. “I’m excited to see how it comes into play in the music and video.” Similarly, a man dressed like he’s from the Matrix tells me he can’t wait to see what “crazy thing” Fox comes out with. “She’s the queen of New York,” the man says as he sips white wine. “She slays, she’s great.” His companion, a woman in her underwear, nods in agreement.

As the countdown clock begins to wind down, the house music fades and everyone shifts towards the big screen. The lights dim, and an announcer comes out to introduce the video, which starts off with Fox taking her child to school, before being called to action to defeat a criminal enterprise in an abandoned warehouse with her team of Julia Fox clones. There’s a teacher Fox, a boxer Fox, a doctor Fox, and then Fox Prime, in a yellow rubber costume that’s a cross between Kill Bill and Watchmen. Together, they rescue her friend who’s being held hostage in the warehouse and bring her back to life with a magic ring — all in time to pick Fox’s daughter up from school.

After the video, Fox makes her grand entrance. She crosses through the crowd in a silver leather bikini bottom and a matching coat with what appears to be a tinfoil sword across her chest. (I later learn that the look is part of her collaboration with emcee, a new, highly curated social shopping platform.) Every time the chorus — “I’m a b*tch, I’m a girl, I’m a mother, I’m a wh*re” — is repeated, it’s met with cheers from the crowd.

If none of this is really makes sense, I think that was the point.