Throughout this season of i-Dentity, each guest has been a bona fide embodiment of – and guiding force in shaping – some of the most dynamic subcultural scenes in living memory. None, however, have been at the heart of quite as many of them as Susanne Bartsch, New York’s quasi-official queen of clubs: a party producer and community organiser who has been responsible for some of the most memorable nights – and looks, for that matter – that the Big Apple has ever seen.  

Before she landed in the city in 1981 – setting herself up in the very same Hotel Chelsea room she spoke to us from for this episode – she’d been an integral part of the subcultural landscapes that bloomed in London since its late 60s youthquake. She was born in Bern, the Swiss capital, known for its medieval colonnades, bear pit and quant provinciality. But moving to London at 16, under the pretence of wanting to learn English, she quickly fell into the rock and roll Kings Road it-set alongside the likes of Malcolm McLaren and The Rolling Stones. A decade on, she cemented herself as a key figure among the city’s New Romantics such as Stephen Jones and Princess Julia, and it was as part of this movement that Susanne began to earn a reputation for her outré fashion sensibility. 

It was in New York, however, that her reputation as an icon was well and truly established. After back-and-forth visits to the city throughout the late 70s (she attended the opening of Studio 54 alongside legendary drag queen Divine, no less), she eventually made the move to the city in 1981. By the mid-80s, she had become the eminent importer of London’s most buzzed-about radical fashions – names like Bodymap, Joe Casely-Hayford and John Galliano – thanks to the namesake store she opened in a then-derelict SoHo. 

More than looks, community has always been at the core of Susanne’s mission, and in the mid-80s, Susanne started throwing parties that acted as a natural home or stage for the clothes she sold. From “one-night stands” thrown at Savage, a chintzy basement disco club a couple of doors down from the Chelsea Hotel, to her legendary monthly parties at the Copacabana, fashion has always been a motivating factor behind her events. Her looks – including pieces from Galliano’s ‘Les Incroyables’ graduate collection, Mr Pearl corsets and Mugler couture ensembles – are a testament to that. 

At Savage, and later Copacabana, her mission objective wasn’t just to create a forum for extroverted style, but to create contexts that brought together the city’s nocturnal tribes. “At the time, it was either neat nails, french fries and European disco on the dance floor. Or the Tracks Club, which was a very gay, shirts-off venue with very dark lighting,” she says of the nightlife at that time. Her first parties, which became adamant counterpoints to New York’s then-segregated night scene, were IRL Rolodexes of the hottest names in the city and anyone passing through – Marc Jacobs, Jean Paul Gaultier, Amanda Lepore and RuPaul were all regulars.“Copacabana became a gallery of people,” she says, noting the then-radical diversity that the party became known for. “I’ve always viewed my events as places where people could come and express themselves, and whoever they wanted to be.”

In 1989, the community-minded ethos at the heart of Susanne’s events translated to trailblazing activism. As she reminisces in the episode, the scenes that she was at the heart of were ravaged by the AIDS epidemic. A response to the rage and sadness she felt at the insurmountable loss she’d experienced, she set about organising the very first Love Ball, a fundraising gala that saw her draw upon her rhizomatic network, particularly in the fashion industry, to raise millions of dollars for HIV/AIDS research. “At that time, the fashion community hadn't done anything at all to fight AIDS,” she explains, “so I decided to go after them and say, ‘You’ve got to come and help me fight this.’ They all rallied around it, and it became a real cultural and political statement.” 

To this day, Susanne continues to make her mark on party culture in her adopted hometown, through her regular nights at The Standard’s Le Bain and the McKittrick Hotel, and at the events she throws worldwide. In this episode, the fashion and nightlife legend extemporises on over four decades at the height of New York’s downtown scene, the weirdest, wildest and most wonderful things she’s seen along the way, and her brand new book – available for pre-order here if you’re in the UK, or here if you’re anywhere else – which offers a visual foil to the stories you’re about to hear.