Colin Jost Had a 'Surreal' NYFW Night at the Tommy Hilfiger Show — on His Own Staten Island Ferry (Exclusive)

The designer hosted his SS25 show on the Staten Island Ferry that Jost bought with Pete Davidson in 2022

Tommy Hilfiger always knows how to throw a party.

For New York Fashion Week this season, the designer hosted a nautical-themed runway show, and where better to host a show than on a boat? Hilfiger didn't invite his guests onto just any boat, though — he hired a very particular boat: the JFK Staten Island Ferry owned by Colin Jost and Pete Davidson.

Who could forget when SNL stars Davidson and Jost, 42, famously purchased the decommissioned ferry in 2022?

The boat was pulled into the South Street Seaport for the Sept. 8 show and Jost was on board for the night. He tells PEOPLE that it was "pretty weird" seeing his boat play the host for a fashion show because it looked nothing like what it usually does.

Related: Pete Davidson and Colin Jost Joke About Buying a Staten Island Ferry on 'SNL' : 'We're Boat People Now'

"I thought that Tommy and everyone who organized the event really did a great job," Jost told PEOPLE while on the ferry. "I was saying while watching the show that it's almost like [the ferry] was kind of built for something like this, the way the seating is laid out and seeing the people move around the deck. It's very surreal."

Jost also joked that he couldn't believe this was the same boat he used to take to high school — and the same boat he sometimes would take home to Staten Island (where he's from) at 3 a.m.

"It's a different vibe," he said.

The Tommy Hilfiger team decked out the ferry — which is also co-owned by The Stand comedy club owner Paul Italia — in appropriate "attire." All of the signage had been changed to be Tommy Hilfiger branded, and the life preservers were changed out to be branded as well. The staff on board were hired for the night and dressed appropriately, and food and drinks were brought in for the event.

Jost joked to PEOPLE that the hot dogs in particular looked much better than what used to be served on board the ferry.

Related: Colin Jost Says He Was 'Stone-Cold Sober' When He Bought Ferry with Pete Davidson

Related: Pete Davidson Gives Update on Ferry Purchased with Colin Jost and Jokes It's Now Their 'Lifelong Problem'

Fortunately for Jost — who had just landed back in New York from visiting wife Scarlett Johansson in London and said he hadn't been in town since May — he didn't have to do much of the prep to get the ferry ready for the show.

"[The team was] doing 24-hour shifts getting the show together, and they did a great job," he said. "I landed into a whirlwind and I didn't even know what to expect coming here, but I was very impressed!"

The show's front row included everyone from Brooke Shields (whose youngest daughter Grier Henchy, 18, walked the runway) and Jisoo from Blackpink to Olympians Suni Lee and Gabby Thomas. Wu Tang Clan even showed up for a surprise performance on board the ferry while the models walked the runway for the finale, before Questlove took over deejaying for the night's afterparty.

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The talk of the town, though, was Jost's boat (which still very much looks like a Staten Island Ferry, if you were wondering). Though architect Ron Castellano, one of Jost's partners in renovating the ferry, told Curbed in March that the team was headed toward renovation on the ferry, the boat's future is still a bit in flux, according to Jost.

"The boat hasn't been up to anything in the last two years," Jost joked to PEOPLE. "All of us have other jobs that have taken up a lot of this time that probably we should have been doing this, but there actually has been a lot of work being done even though it seems like it was just sitting around. Sitting around is better than drifting away."

As Castellano explained to Curbed, the team is considering Miami as a destination for the ferry, and Jost told PEOPLE that could still be the case — but selfishly he wants the ferry to stay in New York.

"Being on the water in New York is very special," he said. "I would love it to be here. I think it's special if it stays in New York in some way and I think it will be re-imagined, but I think the spirit of it will be the same. Like you see tonight, it's fun to have a party on a Staten Island Ferry, which you never get to do."

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