We first heard about Susanne Bartsch's Shhh!!! event in late June when a familiar face handed us a piece of card stock at The Cock at closing time (don't judge!) that listed a TriBeCa address, a list of names, and an RSVP email in a heavily serifed font. We didn't make the July date, but we made sure to mark our calendar for the Shhh!!! premiere at the McKittrick Hotel where the popular Sleep No More experience is housed ...
Next Magazine: Shhh!!! (A Metamorphosis) @ The McKittrick Hotel →
Photo Gallery
August 28, 2013. Susanne Bartsch and her den of performance artists transform The McKittrick Hotel into a transformative, theatrical party space.
Next Magazine: Nightlife Hall of Fame 2013: Susanne Bartsch →
Susanne Bartsch is flitting about the club room at The Soho Grand, a mini whirlwind of gauzy black tulle. It’s 10pm and this is just the first of the two parties she hosts every Tuesday night.
“Can I get you a drink?” she asks the evening’s performer, Bridget Everett. The buxom singer asks for a chardonnay, her signature tipple, but Bartsch produces a coupe brimming with champagne. Because, you know, what else would anyone drink, darling?
“At the end of the day I’m just a cocktail waitress,” Bartsch says with a self-depreciating laugh as she pops olives into her mouth, waiting for more drinks for her other guests. “I love the tiger you’ve wrapped yourself in tonight!” she tells DJ Johnny Dynell who is in fact celebrating his birthday in a splashy leopard print suit ...
Paper: A Look Into the Life of Nightlife Legend Susanne Bartsch →
It's not an exaggeration to say nightlife legend Susanne Bartsch has ruled the New York club world for decades. She has sashayed half nude, covered in high-fashion finery, wigs and other accoutrements through every major club since the 80s and she's still hotter than ever. Currently holding court on Tuesdays at SoHo Grand and Thursday at Marquee, she's just finished a summer season of weekly On Top parties at the Standard Hotel. Despite the ups and downs of the crazy world of NYC clubs, the Swiss born Bartsch has the face and body of a Playboy bunny in her early 30s. Our photographer, Rebecca Smeyne, visited Bartsch at her home in the Chelsea Hotel as she prepped for her weekly Thursday night party, Catwalk Marquee. Smeyne later caught up with Bartsch while hosting her other bashes -- Tuesdays at Soho Grand and On Top at The Standard. We, meanwhile, took her on a walk down memory lane and heard her feelings about whether NYC is still number one or just ain't what it used to be ...
The New York Times: Not Going Gentle Into That Good Night →
Susanne Bartsch frowned into a ceiling-high mirror, lifting her left breast with her palm. “This one looks droopy,” she said, in her Swiss-German accent. She turned and examined her svelte profile, adding proudly, “They’re only a year old.”
It was nearing 11 p.m. on a Thursday, and Ms. Bartsch, flanked by a pair of stylists and her yapping schnauzer, Bippy, had been primping in her boho-chic Chelsea Hotel apartment for more than an hour. Not that the process is ever brief; for Ms. Bartsch, the Swiss Miss of New York night life since the Koch era, dressing up is as meticulous an art form as decoupage.
But on this particular night, still jet-lagged from a jaunt to Singapore, Ms. Bartsch was exasperated. Her makeup was all wrong. (“I wanted rhinestone dots, not black splatches!”) A ruffled harness with a giant pink bow, which slung up around her shoulder from her petite waist, had no identifiable front or back. Same with an enormous, custom black wig, which was shaped like a sousaphone ...
Paper: Scenes from Susanne Bartsch's New Bash, Catwalk →
For anyone who claims New York nightlife is dead, sanitized or boring...well, they just haven't been to legendary nightlife maven Susanne Bartsch's new party at the recently-revamped Marquee, "Catwalk." Our photographer Rebecca Smeyne stopped by last night and caught all of the action, which included a dance off, art installations by Renato Dicent, and music by Alex from Tokyo and Johnny Dynell ...
Racked Boston: Susanne Bartsch Will Blow Your Mind With an Avant-Garde Show →
It's not everyday that we Bostonians get to revel in the presence of New York's finest nightlife figures, but on Saturday night, the Revere Hotel's Space 57 will welcome the queen of the queens, Susanne Bartsch, along with her performance troupe rolling 50 deep in a bus from the Big Apple. The pop-up show revolves around various genres of music—from high energy dance pop to 80s goth—and a mix of performers including Amanda Lepore and Beyonce's choreographer, Jonte. The most titillating thing though is the costumes. And it's always about the costumes with this bunch ...
Village Voice: And The Queen Of NYC Nightlife Is... →
Swiss miss Susanne Bartsch.
Still? Yes, after all these years, Ms. Bartsch still draws the fabbies and whooshes them into a creatively rich experience that propels them into the after-hours like space rockets with accessories. And with her own sylphlike body and ethereal outfits, she totally looks the part of the hostess from the lunar-coastess ...
Village Voice: Bartsch And Arias Create A New Living Room Ambience →
"Think of this as my apartment," black-chiffon-laden hostess Susanne Bartsch told guests at the weekly, unnamed Tuesday night soiree at Soho Grand's lounge last night. "Make yourselves comfortable. Have sex on the floor!"
Please! I'd certainly do that at her real house, but not in front of strangers! ...
Patricia Fields: Patricia Field and Susanne Bartsch’s 2013 Valentine’s Day Love Ball at the Marquee NY →
Darlings, it really was a night to remember. On Thursday February 14, friends and New York legends Pat Field and Susanne Bartsch joined forces to create one of the most memorable evenings in nightlife I’ve been to in a long time.
The night was all about fashion, music, drinking, and most importantly- LOVE! The energy was electric as party goers ready to let loose after a long fashion week came together at the newly renovated Chelsea space for a night of fun and dancing ...
The New York Times: Let’s Shut Down the Catwalks and Dance →
By 12:30 a.m., it was a mob scene at the revamped Marquee nightclub in Chelsea, where Patricia Field and Susanne Bartsch were hosting a Valentine’s Ball with Michael Fragoso (of Le Baron’s Les Garçons). The event was also Ms. Field’s birthday party and rumors flew about it becoming the unofficial Marc Jacobs after-party.
“I think any reason to have a party, you should absolutely party,” Ms. Field said, after blowing out the three candles on her cake ...
The New York Times: A Lounge of Her Own →
IN the ’70s and ’80s, thousands of would-be artists and as-yet-unknowns swept into New York City with fantasies of making it big.
Susanne Bartsch, the Swiss party hostess who is now known for her outrageous get-ups and association with the drag scene here, wasn’t quite one of them. She first visited New York in 1977 to go to Studio 54, and wasn’t all that enthralled ...
NY Daily News: Susanne Bartsch marks birthday, and David Barton celebrates his workout biz, with gym-dandy bash at Copacabana →
David Barton celebrated 20 years of running gyms while his quasi-former wife, Susanne Bartsch, celebrated her 61st birthday the other night at the Copacabana. The guests, about 300 costumed club “kids,” celebrated because that’s just what they do.
“I love you all,” said Bartsch, taking the stage around midnight Thursday in a long black dress with a back slit exposing a hint of butt cleavage ...
Time Out New York: Susanne Bartsch's On Top At Le Bain →
Queer-leaning nightlife in the summer can be a bit lean, what with all the party gays in Fire Island, Provincetown and other glorified suburbs. Thankfully, the illustrious Susanne Bartsch has our backs with her mixed arty party On Top. Every Tuesday, the downtown legend fills the Standard Hotel's glorious rooftop lounge, Le Bain, with some of the city's most outlandish and fun-loving creatures of the night ...
The New York Times: A Wig to Match Every Look →
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 21
I went out with my teenage son, who was on the hunt for a gift for his girlfriend. He’s been driving me nuts with his college applications. I left the house wearing a purple vintage Chloé mohair sweater from the Stella McCartney days, slate gray stretchy jeans from Uniqlo, YSL leopard frame sunglasses and matte silver Marc Jacobs lace-up biker boots with fuzzy shearling lining. My coat was an oversize silver and dark gray Jean Paul Gaultier parka with a monkey-fur trim hood. The back and sleeves look like a zebra, complete with a horsehair mane and tail ...
The Standard: Susanne Bartsch's Halloween at The Top of The Standard & Le Bain →
Photo Gallery
NBC 6 South Florida: Famed Nightlife Queen Susanne Bartsch on Delano Bash: "Expect the Unexpected!" →
Legendary nightlife purveyor Susanne Bartsch said she never had any doubt when approached to outfit the Delano's New Year's soiree - in fact, she immediately jumped on it.
"Miami is so fantastic," she said. "There is something about it…it has that effortless magic."
And her "magic" - which has made her one of the nation's most famed party planners - will be pouring out all over the Delano Friday night, in pretty much every way imaginable (or, maybe not so much) ...
The New York Times: On Top →
REVELERS mourning the loss of Beige at B Bar have a new place to dance the pain away on Tuesday nights. Last month, the night-life doyenne Susanne Bartsch started “On Top,” a Tuesday party at Le Bain, the dark aerie opposite the Boom Boom Room on the 18th floor of the Standard hotel.
Don’t show up in your office clothes. “I didn’t know this was a costume party,” remarked one would-be reveler, upon being rebuffed by the woman guarding the door. The in-the-know partygoers adhered to Ms. Bartsch’s dress code — Anything goes. Nothing is too much. Show me some skin — and turn out in elaborate get-ups. Full body paint, a beekeeping suit and a Shakespearean fencing ensemble were recently spotted ...
Paper: Susanne Bartsch Serves Up "On Top Tuesdays" at Le Bain →
If the closure of the long-running Beige soiree has left you worrying about your Tuesday night's entertainment, fear not, Swiss Miss, Susanne Bartsch has brought her unique style of nightlife magic to Le Bain on Tuesday nights. Our nightlife photographer Rebecca Smeyne was there to capture all the magic of the inaugural installment ...
World Red Eye: Bloody Mary NYE at Delano →
Susanne Bartsch and Desi Monster hosted Bloody Mary New Years Eve 2011 last night at the Delano Hotel. Guests, including host Joey Arias, enjoyed an open bar from 9 PM until 1 AM, hors d’oeuvres, and six unique experiences throughout the hotel: Disco Dungeon in the Florida Room, Patricia Field Lounge in the Lobby, Clans in the Court, Harlots in the Orchard, Swan Lake in the Pool, and Bloody Mary in the Beach Bar. Music was provided by DJs Johnny Dynell, Michael Magnan and Saint Buck ...