Colin Jost Had a 'Surreal' NYFW Night at the Tommy Hilfiger Show — on His Own Staten Island Ferry (Exclusive)

Tommy Hilfiger always knows how to throw a party.

For this season’s Fashion Week in New York, the designer hosted a fashion show with a nautical theme, and where better to organize a show than on a ship? Hilfiger didn’t invite his guests on just any boat, though — he chartered a very special boat: the JFK Staten Island Ferry, owned by Colin Jost and Pete Davidson.

Who could ever forget SNL stars Davidson and Jost, 42, famously bought the retired ferry in 2022?

The ship was towed into the South Street Seaport for the exhibition on September 8 and Jost was on board all night. He tells PEOPLE that it was “pretty weird” to see his boat host a fashion show because it didn’t look anything like how it normally does.

Tommy Hilfiger and Colin Jost.

Gilbert Flores/WWD via Getty

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“I thought Tommy and everyone who organized the event really did a great job,” Jost told PEOPLE while on the ferry. “I said while watching the series that it was almost like [the ferry] is kind of built for something like this, the way the seats are set up and watching people move around the deck. It’s very surreal.”

Jost also joked that he couldn’t believe this was the same boat he used to ride to high school — and the same boat he would sometimes use to get home to Staten Island (where he’s from) at 3 a.m.

“It’s a different vibe,” he said.

The Tommy Hilfiger team decked out the ferry – which is also co-owned by The Stand comedy club owner Paula Italia – in a fitting ‘outfit’. All lettering has been changed to be Tommy Hilfiger branded and the life belts have also been changed to be branded. Staff on board were hired to stay the night and dressed appropriately, and food and drink were brought in for the event.

Jost joked with PEOPLE that the hot dogs look a lot better than what used to be served on the ferry.

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Fortunately for Jost — who just landed in New York from visiting wife Scarlett Johansson in London and said he hadn’t been in the city since May — he didn’t have to do much to get the ferry ready for the show.

“[The team was] working 24-hour shifts putting the show together, and they did a great job,” he said. “I went into a whirlwind and didn’t even know what to expect coming in here, but I was very impressed!”

The show’s front row included everyone from Brooke Shields (whose youngest daughter Grier Henchy, 18, walked the runway) and Blackpink’s Jisoo to Olympians Suni Lee and Gabby Thomas. The Wu Tang Clan even made a surprise appearance on the ferry as the models walked the runway for the finale, before Questlove took over to DJ the night’s afterparty.

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Colin Jost.

Gilbert Flores/WWD via Getty

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However, the talk of the town was Jost’s boat (which still bears a strong resemblance to the Staten Island Ferry, in case you were wondering). Although architect Ron Castellano, one of Jost’s partners in renovating the ferry, told Curbed in March that the team had begun renovating the ferry, according to Jost, the ship’s future is still in flux.

“The ship hasn’t done anything in the last two years,” Jost joked to PEOPLE. “All of us have other jobs that took up a lot of our time that we probably should have been doing this for, but it was actually a lot of work even though it looks like he was just sitting. Sitting is better than wandering off.”

As Castellano explained to Curbed, the team is considering Miami as a destination for the ferry, and Jost told PEOPLE that could still be the case — but he selfishly wants the ferry to stay in New York.

“Being on the water in New York is very special,” he said. “I wish he was here. I think it’s special if he kind of stays in New York and I think he’ll reinvent himself, but I think the spirit of it will be the same. As you can see tonight, it’s fun to have a party on the ferry on Staten Island, which you can never do.”

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Source: HIS Education