White Party (Sean Combs)

The White Parties were a series of parties given by the entertainer and businessman Sean Combs, also known as Diddy, P. Diddy and Puff Daddy, between 1998 and 2009. The parties were often held at Combs's house in East Hampton, New York. The 2006 party was held in Saint Tropez in the south of France and the last party in Beverly Hills in California. The White Parties typically began during the day and lasted until the early hours of the next day. The parties were often sponsored by prominent brands who gave away merchandise and were attended by numerous celebrities including Justin Bieber, Jennifer Lopez, Mariah Carey, and Paris Hilton. Beyoncé and Jay-Z even released new music at these parties.

The choice of the color white as part of a strictly enforced dress code was intended by Combs to strip away people's image and put them on the same level and create "a certain pristine simplicity" according to the New York Times. Combs has also once stated that the parties where a method of him to break down generational and racial barriers among people were described by the BBC as bringing together "East Hampton's old-money elite and the rising stars of hip hop".

Notable parties

The first party was held on Labor Day in 1998 at Combs's house on Hedges Banks Drive in East Hampton, New York. Paris Hilton described the inaugural party as iconic and said that "everyone was there" and likened Combs to Jay Gatsby. The party had a strict dress code of white clothing with 1,000 people on the guest list. Martha Stewart said that having all the guests dressed in white was a "stunning sight" and that Combs "looked very handsome in white". Monique P. Yazigi wrote in an article in The New York Times that 1998 would be remembered as the "Summer of Puff Daddy in the Hamptons".

In 2004 the party was held at the 'PlayStation 2 Estate' in Bridgehampton, New York on 4 July in aid of Combs' Citizen Change, an organisation he established to increase minority voter participation in the 2004 United States presidential election. It was held in conjunction with Sony and PlayStation 2. Combs arrived at the party carrying an original copy of the Declaration of Independence owned by the television producer Norman Lear. Combs said that "No one would ever expect a young black man to be coming to a party with the Declaration of Independence, but I got it, and it's coming with me ... And I promise not to spill champagne on it". NPR wrote in 2024 that Combs's appearance with the Declaration of Independence marked a new level of fortune and braggadocio for the Combs. He also promised make the 2004 election "the hottest, most sexiest thing ever". Combs arrived at the party in two helicopters with his entourage and the cast members of A Raisin in the Sun in which he was appearing on Broadway. One helicopter was red, white and blue and the other was 'military green' decorated with the logos for Citizen Change and his fashion label Sean John. Combs spoke to the 800 attendees to urge them to vote before a group of spoken word poets performed an interpretation of the Declaration of Independence. Guests included Tyson Beckford, Elton Brand, Mary J. Blige, Aretha Franklin, Paris Hilton, LL Cool J, Betsey Johnson, Lennox Lewis, Lisa Ling, Denise Rich, and Al Sharpton.

The 2006 White Party was held in at Nikki Beach, a club on the beach at Saint-Tropez, on the Cote d'Azur in the south of France.

In 2007 the party was held at Combs's house in East Hampton on 2 September and was titled 'The Real White Party'. It was held in conjunction with Ciroc and reportedly cost $1 million with 300 guests in attendance. Guests included Mariah Carey, Lil' Kim, Star Jones, Busta Rhymes, and Russell Simmons.

The 2009 party was called "Malaria No More" and held in Beverly Hills, California in aid of an anti-malaria charity. It was the last White Party staged by Combs. The parties were ended as Combs was spending less time in The Hamptons. Representatives for Combs described the parties as "iconic, a true convergence of hip-hop, Hollywood and Black excellence ... an endless stream of people vying to attend". Guests included Russell Brand, Mariah Carey, Estelle, Jonah Hill, Lil' Kim, Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, and Marla Maples and her daughter Tiffany Trump. Attractions included stilt walkers and dancers in giant plastic balloons. Kutcher himself swung across a swimming pool on a giant swing. Vanity Fair felt that the highlight of the party was when Chris Brown was spotted kissing Amber Rose, having earlier arrived at the party with Teyana Taylor.

Reputation and significance

In 2024 Jesse McKinley and Sarah Maslin Nir wrote in the New York Times that in the 2000s "few events held the cultural cachet" that the White Parties did and that Combs would be "invariably toasting the scene with a glass of Cîroc vodka, and welcoming comparisons of his revels to those of lore". In a 2024 article for CNN, Lisa Respers France wrote that there had once been a time when an invite to the parties was one of the hottest summer tickets and that the parties were the peak of his cultural influence. The parties saw a broad range of social and cultural elites socialising together as "veteran celebrities mixed with of-the-moment stars and the high-society set at gatherings that often had civic-minded causes" according to the New York Times. Vanity Fair felt that the parties had "started to lose [their] fizzle" by 2009. The writer Steven Gaines said that initially the residents of The Hampton thought "the first party was the end of the world ... They were afraid of a noisy showbiz crowd and thought it was going to be an invasion, and it turned out not to be". Combs's neighbors in the Hamptons were pacified with limousine rides and complimentary meals at expensive restaurants to abate noise complaints.

Sexual assault allegations

The aftermath of Comb's arrest and indictment on allegations of sexual misconduct in late 2024 caused a reappraisal of the White Parties for the participants and staff. A statement from Combs said that it was disappointing to "see the media and social commentators twist these cultural moments into something they were not ... Shaming celebrities who attended, taking video clips and photos out of context, and trying to link these events to false allegations is simply untrue". In 1999 Combs had said that "They don't want me to throw the parties no more ... But we ain't going to stop. We gonna keep on having fun. Bringing people together from all walks of life" and that "You gonna hear about my parties ... They gonna be shutting them down, they gonna probably be arresting me, doing all types of crazy things just because we want to have a good time".

Individual lawsuits have alleged that Combs sexually assaulted several individuals at his White Parties including a 16-year-old boy, a male bodyguard, and a female dancer over the course of several years. The jeweller Jacob Arabov was named alongside Combs by the dancer in her lawsuit.