Anna Delvey’s Next Move: House Arrest and New York Fashion Week

The Gist:

• Anna Delvey might be on house arrest, but she still managed to take part in New York Fashion Week.
• Anna teamed up with Kelly Cutrone and designer Shao to host a fashion show on the roof of her apartment building.
• Although the fashion show was likely a PR stunt, it worked because the internet is still talking about it.

Notorious con artist and fake heiress Anna Delvey, whose actual name is Anna Sorokin, may be under house arrest, but that doesn't mean she can't participate in New York Fashion Week

We know we know what you are wondering: How is Anna going to be at fashion week if she can't leave her home? Well, she brings fashion week to her home of course.

Anna partnered with PR maven and boss lady Kelly Cutrone (yes, THAT Kelly Cutrone who Lauren Conrad interned for on The Hills) to put together a fashion show on the roof of Anna's apartment building in the East Village.

Here's how it all went down.

Anna, who was charged with grand larceny and theft of services, went to prison in April 2019 and was released on house arrest in October 2022 while she awaits her deportation hearing.

Anna partnered with Kelly to make the pop-up PR agency, OutLaw Agency, to put together a fashion show on the roof of Anna's fifth-floor East Village walk up.

And while the whole event might have been a PR stunt in itself, it worked because the entire internet is talking about it. The show hosted about 50 guests including tons of huge names in the press like People, CNN, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.

Kelly acknowledged the liability of the fashion show but said, "We’re not doing anything bad. And I always clean [after] any event I’ve ever done." She further played on this narrative opening the show with the lines, "“We are the OutLaw Agency and we have no respect for the law” (via The Washington Post).

Shao is original from Taiwan and is based in Brooklyn. This was her first NYFW show with her line having a very androgynous feel. The pieces are being genderless and Shao told The Washington Post that anyone can wear the clothing

Shao was very aware of the fact that her clothes would be secondary to the spectacle that was the event and Anna herself, and she was OK with that. Shao told The Washington Post that, “Anybody who knows me, I like to stay in the back. I like to be behind the scenes.”

Anna acknowledged that her presence would overshadow Shao. She told The New York Times, "It’s so hard for new designers to get any attention, and I can just get publicity — bad publicity, any publicity, just for taking out garbage. We’re just trying to channel it into something positive."

After the show ended, people hung out on the roof until the NYPD showed up and told everyone they had to leave, which seems pretty fitting for the whole event if you think about it.