Inside Encore After Hours’ Intimate Evening With Gigi Perez

Gigi Perez, fresh off her stadium tour with Noah Kahan, performed for a select group of Gap Inc.’s Encore loyalty program members during New York Fashion Week at the Cherry Lane Theatre, an iconic and intimate 150-seat venue in Greenwich Village. The event—Encore After Hours, powered by Rolling Stone—was the pinnacle of Fashion Week programming organized especially and exclusively for Encore members, providing members and cardholders with the increasingly rare opportunity to experience Perez in an up close and personal setting.

Dressed in GapStudio and introduced by EVP and Creative Director of Gap Inc. Zac Posen, Perez and Rolling Stone deputy editor Julyssa Lopez first took to the stage to discuss Perez’s rise from a Soundcloud artist recording music from her family home in Florida to one of the most lauded and buzzy singer/songwriters working today. While it came with a steep learning curve, Perez says she’s finally at a place where she is comfortable enough on stage and in front of crowds to experiment with live performance, telling Lopez, “Being on stage feels like being at home. It always did, but it [also] scared the daylights out of me. I love that feeling of anxiety and feeling like I’m about to jump out of an airplane when I sing. I love that feeling.” 

Perez, now 26, has spent much of the past decade growing an ardent and loyal fanbase with her many heart-rendering songs about grief and yearning for something out of reach. Having grown up in a deeply religious household, Perez spoke about the challenging loneliness she experienced as a gay teenager and the ways that affected her songwriting.

“I was struggling a lot,” she told the Encore audience. “…It’s a very common experience, that backdrop of struggling with religion and where religion separates from my understanding of God, and also my sexuality. It was a recipe for disaster to be experiencing that at 15.”

It was also around that time that Perez lost her grandmother and uncle in startlingly quick succession. Then, in 2020, her older sister Celene—an opera singer—suddenly passed away. 

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“There were years and times—and even still now—of struggling with that survivor’s guilt,” reflected Perez. “…People say you can’t beholden yourself to carrying out someone’s dream, but that’s…not an option for me. It’s more like a duty, because I know [Celene] would’ve done the exact same thing for me.”

In the haze of loss, she often turned to music as a creator and a listener—though, frequently she struggled to find existing songs that spoke to the acute level of grief that she experienced. 

“When I look back on the album, you know, it took years to process [At the Beach, in Every Life],” said Perez. “It’s taken years of sitting with [grief]…of not having the words to finally have them. The fact that now these stories and these feelings exist outside of me and that they didn’t end with what happened to me, to [Celene], to our family…It exists as something that can help other people.”

Midconversation with Lopez, Perez remarked on the intensity and intimacy in the room, saying she could practically hear a pin drop as the rapt audience hung on her every word. Recognizing the exclusivity and uniqueness of the moment, the crowd’s energy swelled even bigger as—dressed in dark denim wide-legged jeans and a cropped striped Oxford shirt—Perez took to the stage with her guitar for a solo performance of six songs, including her hit “Sailor Song,” “Sometimes (Blackwood),” and a throaty, acoustic cover of Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso.” (Perez frequently surprises with her inspirations, which—as she told Lopez earlier in the evening—also include Hilary Duff, the Killers, and Ariana Grande.)

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“I love being able to be so in the room,” Perez said between songs, addressing the increasing rarity of performing to small crowds at such a small, historic venue as Cherry Lane. The intimate setting was matched by a number of thoughtful details throughout the evening, including complimentary BonBon candy, popcorn, and commemorative showbills personally signed by Perez for attendees. 

As Perez’s success grows, opportunities to connect so closely with her audience have become as precious to her as they are to her fans. Encore recognizes the beautiful uniqueness of such occasions and continuously offers bespoke programming at the intersection of music, fashion and entertainment—or “fashiontainment”—throughout the year, and in locations across the country. Other offerings throughout Fashion Week included access to the most highly anticipated shows, such as Sandy Liang, and a tour of Anna Sui’s atelier studio. Also included among the many membership perks are early access and discounts to Gap Inc. brands, which include Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic, and Athleta. You can sign up for the Gap Inc. Encore Program in stores or online here.