Johnny Suh may have hit the red carpet at the Gold Gala in Los Angeles on May 6 wearing a bespoke Thom Browne suit, but the day before, he could be found frolicking on Venice Beach in a much humbler look: jeans, a white t-shirt, and a plaid jacket. The K-pop star, known for his lead dancing and lyrical stylings in the supergroup NCT, flew from his home base of Seoul just to attend the awards show.
Put on by the organization Gold House, the Gold Gala honors the top 100 Asian and Pacific Islanders who have significantly impacted the culture at large. Of course, the cast of Everything Everywhere All at Once was on hand (Ke Huy Quan embraced his fellow honoree Sandra Oh on the carpet), in addition to Ashley Park, Daniel Dae Kim, Prabal Gurung, and many more AAPI luminaries. From the moment Suh hit the cream-colored steps outside The Music Center in Downtown L.A., fans were screaming his name—24 hours prior, however, Suh had just landed on the West Coast.
“The flight was fine until the last 30 minutes but…we made it!” Suh tells W via email. “The first thing I did was buy some coffee.” Together with his team of about 10 (“it’s a whole squad,” Suh adds), the musician began getting ready for the Gold Gala about an hour and a half before the event was due to begin. It was far from the performer’s first time in the United States: in fact, Suh was born in Chicago and often flies between New York and L.A. (Last year, he attended the 2022 Met Gala in a satin Peter Do number, then returned to Manhattan a few months later to sit front row at Thom Browne’s fall 2023 presentation during NYFW.)
Still, the sun and positive disposition of Los Angeles draws Suh back time and again—and each visit, he makes sure to spend a moment at the beach. He also practices what has become something of an accidental tradition: “I wouldn’t say it’s intentional, but every time I come here, I always eat Chipotle for some reason.” Below, Suh takes us behind the scenes…
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