At some point during Thursday’s GQ x Levi’s Paris Fashion Week party, GQ global editorial director Will Welch was behind the DJ booth trying to remember how many times he’d hosted this very bash. 12? 13? “A lot,” he concluded.

Welch and GQ first took over the compact fashion canteen L’Avenue in June 2018 to celebrate the new energy then coursing through the world of menswear—thanks in part to Virgil Abloh, who took a turn DJing that night. The GQ Paris Party has gone down every (non-pandemic) season since, becoming a fixture of the men’s show schedule for designers, stylists, models, musicians, front row regulars, editors, and any other fashion insiders looking to link and build…and drink and dance.

All night, a steady stream of VIPs flooded in from Avenue Montaigne. Dev Hynes and Jack Harlow caught up on the dance floor while Shedeur Sanders made friends with a couple of fashion photographers. Fresh off his runway show earlier that day, Mike Amiri kicked it with fellow designer Jerry Lorenzo. Around midnight, Future grabbed the head of a table and tucked into some dinner. This was not a sign that the party was winding down—quite the contrary, as Usher was back on the scene of his impromptu performance at the January 2023 edition, and SZA and Julia Fox were in the building. Plus, it was GQ Party OG Kitty Ka$h’s birthday, and we brought the cake.

With the news that Welch will be departing GQ in February to move to Paris, the evening was both a bon voyage and a bienvenue. But there was no getting around the fact that it was the last GQ Paris party before Will’s jersey is raised to the rafters of L’Ave. “Paris, I need you to relish in the glory of Will Welch’s last stand,” barked DJ Acyde, who has held it down on the 1s and 2s for the party’s entire eight-year run. “It’s the final installment. This is some Star Wars shit.”

After the crowd belted out Kitty’s birthday song, Acyde then grabbed the mic and reminded the crowd to leave it all out on the dance floor. Not that he had to—after 12 or 13 GQ parties, everyone knew the drill.