Photographer Mert Alas is known for creating iconic moments. First, for his work as half of legendary fashion photography duo Mert & Marcus. Second, for being the life and soul of the party. So, it’s no surprise that after years of ‘extensive research’ (having a lot of fun in bars around the world), he’s launched his own gin, Seventy One. And he’s sharing details of where to replicate some of his greatest nights with Service95.
The story begins in 1994, when Mert met Marcus Piggott at a party, coinciding with a particularly intoxicating era of London nightlife, when fashion, music, film and club culture collided after dark – often in a bar. The result: a career that has defined fashion photography, with campaigns for everyone from Vogue and Versace to Madonna, Rihanna and Service95 founder Dua Lipa.
That decade still has us in a chokehold today, as Tate Britain opens its doors to The 90s: Art And Fashion, an exhibition curated by Edward Enninful. In an era when even grabbing a coffee can feel staged for Instagram, the unpredictable nights Mert came up in are hard to picture. Fortunately, he’s here to lift the curtain.
Over the decades, his nights have taken him from fashion-week parties in Paris to late-night rendezvous in New York. From legendary, now shuttered venues to iconic institutions still shaping nightlife today, these are the places where magic happens after dark, according to the expert himself.
Bar Hemingway At The Ritz, Paris
The Setting
“I’ve been going there for years, usually with a very small group of close friends. What I love about this place is that it can get surprisingly wild, which I’ve always loved because you’re inside the Ritz. Everything around you is so proper and elegant, and then your little corner becomes completely ridiculous.”
Favourite Memory?
“One night with Kate [Moss], I somehow ended up singing Liza Minnelli’s Maybe This Time to the other guests. With a dance routine, of course. Those are my favourite nights – when something starts incredibly civilised and ends somewhere completely different!”
Go-To Order?
“A very cold, very good Martini.”
Atlantic Bar, London (Open From 1994-2005)
The Setting
“It was the whole London world around us at the time: fashion, music, film, friends. You never really knew who you were going to see when you arrived. It was colour and the pure meaning of nightlife. I would normally arrive around midnight, and every time it felt like the beginning of a journey.”
Favourite Memory?
“I remember the stairs. Walking down into the space thinking, wow, this is a dream. You could see Hugh Grant at one table, Kate Moss at another, Björk walking around in some extraordinary look. Everyone mixed together.”
Go-To Order?
“In the 1990s? Honestly, anything with alcohol.”
The Mercer, New York
The Setting
“It’s more of a meeting point than somewhere you necessarily plan weeks in advance. People coming from shoots, meetings, dinners, or simply passing through New York.”
Favourite Memory?
“The Mercer makes me think immediately of New York in the 2000s. Hotels were very important to nightlife then. The lobby or bar became somewhere everyone passed through. Someone arrived, somebody else left, another friend appeared,and then somebody suggested somewhere else. The night moved with the people.”
Go-To Order?
“In the 2000s, whisky and tequila. Now, an Imperiale, a very delicate yet complex cocktail with Seventy One and toasted cardamom.”
Milk Bar, London (Open From 1990-1994)
The Setting
“You went there to go out properly. Getting dressed was an important part of the night. I’d go with my fashion crowd and just a lot of club kids.”
Favourite Memory?
“Milk Bar was super underground. You wore your best look and everybody was looking at everybody else. The room itself was almost part of the fashion show. It wasn’t polished glamour. It was cooler than that, a bit raw, a bit secretive, very London.”
Go-To Order?
“This was the 1990s. We weren’t exactly studying the cocktail menu! Things have changed a lot since I launched my own gin. I wish I’d had some bottles at the time – it would have fit perfectly!”
China Tang, London
The Setting
“Dinner that turns into a much longer night.”
Favourite Memory?
“The private rooms. I always love disappearing into one with a small group. Dinner continues, the drinks continue, the door closes and suddenly that little room becomes its own world.”
Go-To Order?
“Something strong enough that dinner doesn’t end after dinner. They do a special Martini with Seventy One, Chinese bitters and kumquat, which I think is called the Jade Apothecary.”
Hôtel Costes, Paris
The Setting
“During Paris Fashion Week, we all somehow end up there. Everybody connected through the fashion shows: designers, photographers, models, stylists, artists and friends.”
Favourite Memory?
“Costes was, and still often is, the unofficial living room of fashion week. We would have these huge tables (sometimes 20 people) and everybody would come together after the shows. Dinner wasn’t really dinner. It was the beginning of the night.”
Go-To Order?
“Drinks for the table. Lots of them. All served in a big rocks glass.”
Chateau Marmont, Los Angeles
The Setting
“You start with cocktails in the lobby and see where the night goes.”
Favourite Memory?
“One night in the 2000s, we started having cocktails in the lobby and somehow ended with me playing the piano and Miley [Cyrus] singing opera. We were still there at four in the morning. That’s Chateau. You go for a drink and somehow a story happens.”
Go-To Order?
“A cocktail in the lobby and enough time for it to turn into something else. They do brilliant Seventy One Golden Martinis. They taste even more perfect on the piano!”
The Coach & Horses, Soho, London
The Setting
“I was mainly going in the 1990s and it wasn’t about an occasion. You could just end up there, spend the whole day there and be back again the next day.”
Favourite Memory?
“What I loved about London then was that one of the most fashionable places could simply be a pub in Soho. It was right around the Britpop era, so you would see Britpop stars, upcoming musicians, models, all thrown together. You didn’t need a velvet rope and a perfectly designed room. Sometimes the right 20 people in the wrong place were much more exciting.”
Go-To Order?
“A cold beer.”
