On the eve of New York Fashion Week, Austin Butler was at the Times Square Edition for a party celebrating YSL’s Myslf fragrance. The actor was revealed as the ambassador for the new men’s scent last month, and his campaign played on a loop behind the DJ booth throughout the evening.
“I’ve been a fan of YSL for a long time. Many, many years, just aesthetically,” said Butler from a private meeting room at the hotel, where he held court as the party got underway at the Paradise Club nearby. Later in the evening, rapper Lil Yachty performed a surprise two-song set.
“Once I started to learn more about Yves Saint Laurent, the man, what a rebel he was and how he broke through labels — and also how he delved into his own psyche and how it was about his relationship with himself and trying to understand himself, I started to be more and more inspired by him as an individual,” Butler added.
The actor’s relationship with the fragrance is new, but the scent evokes the memory of his childhood in Orange County.
“One of the key notes and one of the first things that they incorporated into the fragrance was the smell of orange blossoms,” said Butler. “And that was the first thing that came to my memory when I smelled it, because it was my childhood. I had this orange tree in my backyard, and so when the tree would blossom my mom and I would go and pick oranges. I just have such vivid memories of that time, so that’s really the core memory that comes up for me.”
Butler was sticking around town to check out a friend’s art show: Ed Ruscha, whose retrospective “Now Then” opens to the public at MoMA on Sunday. “We’re going to have lunch with him and then go over there,” said Butler.