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It was hello, goodbye at the CFDA’s pre-fashion week cocktail party last night at Diane von Furstenberg’s headquarters in the Meatpacking District. A laundry list of New York’s top designers turned out to celebrate next September’s migration of runway central to Lincoln Center and to bid adieu, as many of them prepare to show there for the last time, to Bryant Park.

According to von Furstenberg, the city forced the change of venue. “They didn’t want us anymore, so we found a better place,” she shrugged. “The only way to deal with rejection is by shining.” Key to that process will be Lincoln Center’s new fashion director, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who got an official welcome midway through the evening. Most of the room seemed happy to have her bringing New York’s high-culture center into the fashion fold, and vice versa. “I think it’s going to elevate fashion week by having it there,” posited Vena Cava’s Lisa Mayock. (”What she said,” echoed her partner, Sophie Buhai.) Speaking of artistic synergy, Tory Burch revealed that her new, Picasso-inspired collection is “a lot about painting—the artistry of it, the colors.”

Despite all the giddy talk about world-class opera and ballet stages, the tents are actually moving to Damrosch Park, which—news flash—is known as Lincoln Center’s circus venue. “Totally appropriate,” von Furstenberg quipped. According to the CFDA’s Steven Kolb, a multicolored pavilion with sawdust floors isn’t necessarily out of the question. “Anything’s possible,” he said.

—Darrell Hartman

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Last night at the Box, burlesque beauties were out and downtown hipsters were in when Sophomore’s Chrissie Miller screened a new short film by her friend and frequent collaborator Cass Bird (for a teaser, click here). Shot on the Coney Island boardwalk, the movie is a cool-kid confessional-cum-lookbook, with Leo Fitzpatrick reminiscing about his “childhood of capers,” Virgins frontman Donald Cummings cussing left and right, and long-legged ladies modeling Miller’s signature denim cutoffs and tank tops.

“I’ve shot Chrissie’s lookbook for a few years now, but we wanted to do something bigger and better,” Bird said at the party, which drew pretty types like Vanessa Traina, Jessica Stam, Jen Brill, and Shoshanna Gruss. Miller, who has always prided herself on being one of the queens of the downtown scene, was quite pleased with the project. “I’m done with street cred. I’m ready to sell out, baby!” she laughed. “Look! I basically made an art house Jersey Shore!”

—Derek Blasberg

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Apparel Software 

It was golf-umbrella gridlock on the Beverly Hilton red carpet at the 67th annual Golden Globe Awards tonight. The rain provided plenty of fodder for white-dress jokes—Kate Hudson wore strapless Marchesa, Kristen Bell chose cocktail-length Jasmine Di Milo. But Chloë Sevigny, in pale rose ruffled Valentino dappled with drops, said what more than a few actresses were probably thinking: “Somebody should’ve put up a tarp.” (The Big Love star, who won for Best Supporting Actress in Television, suffered another fashion injustice onstage when someone stepped on her train.) Still, if the weather put a damper on the pre-show step and repeat, the ceremony itself was crackling, thanks in no small part to the biting wit of host Ricky Gervais. No one was spared: not Kiefer Sutherland, not Angelina Jolie, not Paul McCartney, and, of course, not NBC.

But we’re here to talk about the dresses. Pale nudes were almost as popular as the rainbow-colored ribbons that were worn for the Haiti earthquake. Nicole Kidman kicked off the ceremony in silk Nina Ricci, Emily Blunt looked regal in Dolce & Gabbana, and Drew Barrymore took the stage in Atelier Versace—with one very dramatic shoulder. Black dresses made a strong showing as well. Courteney Cox Arquette selected a Victoria Beckham, Penélope Cruz poured herself into vintage Armani Privé, January Jones accessorized her satin Lanvin with a matching headband—it worked—and Sophia Loren was as movie-star glamorous as ever in her hourglass black frock.

But, with the exception of Meryl Streep, the night’s other big winners wore color: Mo’Nique was in golden Reem Acra, Julianna Margulies in Narciso Rodriguez’s garnet sequins, and Sandra Bullock, who nabbed the Best Actress in a Drama award, in orchid Bottega Veneta. Maggie Gyllenhaal wasn’t up for an award for her excellent work in Crazy Heart; however, we’d like to nominate her orange RM by Roland Mouret as one of the night’s most excellent dresses.

See a list of the Golden Globe winners >

—Nicole Phelps

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Over the weekend, the Miami Basel party scene didn’t let its hair down so much as remove its clothes. By the end of Saturday night, Daphne Guinness and David LaChapelle were splashing about in the legendary pool at the Raleigh, while over at Nikki Beach, the team from New York burlesque club The Box was baring its flesh for the likes of Christian Louboutin, André Balazs, and Vito Schnabel. But first…

Friday night was fashion night, with—and this is a partial list—parties for Bruce Weber, Visionaire magazine, Viktor & Rolf (whose caviar-and-cocktails bash at the Webster drew that other designing double act, Dean and Dan Caten), and Pharrell Williams‘ new collaboration with Moncler. “It’s not bulletproof,” the musician-turned-designer said of the military-style vest he was wearing from the collection. “It’s fashion-proof, though.” Other guests at Casa Tua, meanwhile, were giggling over a new plaque that listed—complete with idiosyncratic spellings—the popular Italian restaurant’s founding members. “Well, maybe they spell von Furstenberg different in Italy,” Genevieve Jones offered.

At the Standard, meanwhile, Bruce Weber was signing copies of Roberto Bolle: An Athlete in Tights. The photographer used a very close-up shot of the ballet dancer in his skivvies for the party invite, but he had opted for something a little less racy for the book’s cover. “We thought about it,” Weber said. “But I want the cover to be forever. I like it that people don’t have to hide my books in drawers.” Among those on hand was avowed Bolle fan Lorenzo Martone. “It’s nice to see a big, sexy man that is not gay—clearly, you can see he’s a heterosexual,” Martone said. How was he so sure? “It’s called gaydar.”

Anyway, one party led to another, and before you knew it, it was Saturday night and Daphne Guinness was hosting a bash for her photographer pal David LaChapelle and their recent collaboration on a series of images for Maybach. After a press conference and dinner in the penthouse of the Raleigh hotel, the duo decided it was time to get wet, following a dozen synchronized swimmers into the pool—she in her diamonds and couture, he in only his underwear. There, they destroyed the giant ice sculptures of the cars, much to the delight of observers like China Chow, James Franco, Nicky Hilton, and Leigh Lezark.

After several years “spending too much time in a fast crowd,” LaChapelle now prefers to hang out at his house in Hawaii pursuing personal work. He also brings his own edge to the commercial projects he agrees to take on. In one of the images for Maybach, Guinness stands in her meticulous, glamorous best in front of a shiny silver car, while the backdrop is a burned-out, desolate desert. “Luxury in the face of the coming of the apocalypse” is how the photographer describes it. “He’s a genius,” Guinness said, and then, ending the weekend on a tender note, she added: “But most of all, he’s like my best friend in the world.”

—Darrell Hartman (Weber) and Derek Blasberg (Williams, LaChapelle)

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Apparel Software 

All eyes were on Emily Blunt last night at the Cinema Society screening of The Young Victoria. Her turn as the English monarch may be the, er, crowning achievement in the actress’ career to date; if you ask us, she’s an Oscar contender. “I don’t feel like I had a burning ambition to play the Queen of England,” Blunt said at the after-party at Norwood, adding that she did feel a deep sympathy for Victoria and her royal struggles. “She learned not to mistake stubbornness for strength, and I learned about the humanity of that world.” Blunt was the only cast member making the rounds, but she found a friend in Michael Stipe when he cozied up to her on the couch.

Meanwhile, a youthful crowd flocked to the second kickoff screening of the midlife comedy It’s Complicated. (Co-stars Alec Baldwin and Meryl Streep had turned out for the uptown premiere the night before.) “This is the kid’s premiere—the cool one,” explained actress Lake Bell, who plays the “misunderstood predator” for whom Baldwin has left Streep in the film. Zoe Kazan was quick to point out how much she had learned from her elders during filming. “The goal is not to be Meryl Streep—the goal is to be able to work like Meryl works,” theorized Kazan, who plays the couple’s middle daughter in the film. “It looks like magic, but it’s not.”

—Darrell Hartman

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—Romney Leader

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It was the stuff of legend. After the emcee at last night’s British Fashion Awards announced that the presenter of the Isabella Blow Award for Fashion Creator would be Karen Elson, the flame-haired model appeared onstage, took a few steps, and, to the audience’s horror, plunged offstage into the void. An agonizing silence followed, with no signs of life. Then, suddenly, Elson was back onstage, un-stunned but still stunning in her red velvet Alexander McQueen gown. “I’m possibly the clumsiest person alive,” she declared to wild cheering, which continued as honoree Grace Coddington thanked her “redhead friend.”

There seems to be so much going on at every level of the British fashion industry at the moment that you could sympathize with Coddington when she said of her own career, “I just hope I can squeeze it all in before they retire me.” Squeezing it all in last night meant an early-evening reception at St. James’s Palace to mark the British Fashion Council’s 25th anniversary, the awards ceremony itself in the impressively scaled banquet hall of the Royal Courts of Justice, and the unofficial after-party hosted by Style.com’s Sarah Mower, the BFC’s Ambassador for Emerging Talent, at Concrete, an appropriately named bunker in the East End.

On the awards front, there were a few pleasant surprises, including Georgia May Jagger as Model of the Year and Katie Hillier as Accessory Designer. Christopher Kane’s nod for British Collection of the Year and Kim Jones‘ Menswear prize were more expected. Victoria Beckham presented Christopher Bailey with the Designer of the Year Award, and Kate Moss accepted John Galliano’s award for Outstanding Achievement in Fashion Design, only to appear back on stage minutes later for her London 25 award, voted by the public as “the individual who embodies the spirit of London.”

“A chance for fashionistas to play grown-ups,” was Virginia Bates’ summation of the night, but it was all kids’ stuff at Concrete, where Charlie Porter played disco for Mower’s mob of young designers (and their godmother, professor Louise Wilson). Meanwhile, Coddington accompanied Elson to A&E, where X-rays showed the only lasting injury from her stage-dive was a sprained thumb. Fate continues to smile on British fashion.

—Tim Blanks

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