“When I started ordering from jewelry display catalogs for my own closet, I realized I had a problem,” joked House of Lavande’s Tracy Smith at a dinner in her honor hosted by Karen Elson and Sarah Sophie Flicker (both of whom were turning heads in their red dresses accessorized with opulent hair jewels) at Bobo last night. The Palm Beach-based Smith’s interest in fine costume jewelry started with a thrift shop find and grew into an obsession—with a retail angle—that’s shared by guests such as Elise Øverland, Allison Sarofim, and Sylvana Soto-Ward, who sparkled with more than their usual brilliance (courtesy of Lavande) last night. If you’d like to indulge, you can shop online or send in pictures of your favorite outfit and get advice at www.houseoflavande.com.—Laird Borrelli-Persson

Photo: Neil Rasmus/PatrickMcMullan.com

“It’s a hard night to compete,” joked Laura Freedman from the courtyard of the Brentwood Country Mart last night as the one-year anniversary celebration for her jewelry store, Broken English, went head to head with the Chanel opening across town. Brooke Shields and Gregory Parkinson made appearances, joining guests for cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and the premiere of a short film entitled “Parmi Les Vivants” (”Among the Living”), screened on vintage television sets. “It’s an embodiment of youth culture,” explained Freedman, who co-produced the Godard-inspired tale of four bandits who break into a jewelry store. Not that anything like that happened last night—rather than grabbing anything from the window, departing guests, bags of take-home cookies in hand, politely inquired as to prices. “That one is about $14,000,” responded Freedman to a query about a gold and opal cuff.—Linlee Allen

Photo: Linlee Allen

Although many guests at Erin Fetherson’s Resort presentation at the Van Cleef & Arpels store on Fifth Avenue last night were still scratching their heads over Calvin Klein’s abrupt eleventh-hour cancellation of its fragrance launch, which had also been scheduled for yesterday evening, Fetherston herself didn’t seem to mind. “It’s good news for me,” she joked. “Now people will hang around and have a drink.” The collection of muted frocks was set up to look like Cecil Beaton images of debutantes. Said the designer, “It kind of reminds me of what I might want to wear on a giant plantation in the Bahamas.” Down at the Earnest Sewn shop in the Meatpacking District, the vibe was less, shall we say, formal. First there were the drinks (vodka mixed with Red Bull doesn’t do a thing for depth perception); second, it was wall-to-wall hipsters; and third, the holes between the oversize planks that make up the floor don’t exactly mix well with high heels. This last fact almost proved a doozy for the night’s hostess, actress Isabelle McNally, the daughter of restaurateur Keith McNally. “That was a little embarrassing,” she said after a stumble, adding that she had intentionally worn wedges for this very reason. Not that she minded, since many of the witnesses were her friends. “I feel like it’s my bat mitzvah,” she laughed.—Derek Blasberg

Photo: Courtesy of Earnest Sewn

The party Kai Kuhne gave to celebrate summer at the Central Park Boathouse last night was not just another one of those two-cocktails-leave-before-dessert work dinners. At about 9 p.m. I found myself being rowed around a lake in Central Park by a singing gondolier named Andreas. I shouldn’t have been surprised that it wasn’t a typical Wednesday evening—there’s nothing ordinary about the ebullient Kühne, who, spotting a turtle in the lake, said, “She’s survived all kinds of seasons and like me, she’s here to last.” Kühne’s hardly been moving at a turtle’s pace, though: He just shot his new ad campaign in a rock quarry in Graniteville, Vermont, and he’s soon off to Berlin fashion week, where he’ll show fall looks mixed with classics from his recently launched Emblematic line.—Laird Borrelli-Persson

Photo: Caroline Torem Craig, courtesy of Kai Kühne

“She’s really marking her territory over there, like a dog just pissing all over the Place Vendôme. But it’s working.” Such was the rather graphic observation one fashion editor made after attending Alessandra Facchinetti’s Valentino Haute Couture debut Wednesday night in Paris. According to many, her scaled-down presentation in the company salon was a step in the right direction. This season there were just two rows of seats at the presentation, held in a white-carpeted room with gilded walls for an extremely select group of editors, clients, and celebrities, including Camilla Belle, Riley Keough, and Maria Sharapova. Following the show, harkening back to the intimate couture presentations of eras past, the house’s white coat-clad seamstresses came out and flanked the exit. “I think this is very chic,” said Rachel Zoe, while snapping pictures with her BlackBerry to make more expedient requests for her red-carpet girls. “She’s kept all the glamour, but not the extravagance. I wish all the shows were like this.” Fashion extravagance could be defined by Mr. Valentino’s previous shows. Remember that little party he threw himself in Rome last year? Or the mirrored runways, red-dress finale, and booming soundtrack that accompanied his last-ever show at Couture last season? Only time will tell if Facchinetti’s keeps up this new sense of glamorous but understated decadence. The collection’s last look was a flowing red gown, which says she’s not too afraid to tap into Valentino history.—Derek Blasberg

Photo: Rex USA

With one year left in her twenties, Ferebee Bishop Taube decided the best place to celebrate her birthday would be the Great Jones Cafe (which one guest labeled the “best place for comfort food when you’re experiencing the world’s worst hangover”). Joining her last night were friends Olivia Chantecaille, Maggie Betts, Barbara Bush, and Eleanor Ylvisaker, as well as a couple of the designers (Alexander Wang and Elise Øverland) the PR maven works with. A highlight was the attendance of the handsome husbands of Taube’s fancy girlfriends, most of whom claim late meetings or last-minute projects when she invites them to what they tend to refer to as “those retail parties” (read: store parties and fashion events). Perhaps they had the right idea, as it did get a little sticky when the same-sex-oriented (the male sex, that is) fashion types tried their best pickup lines on the better halves: “Shall we go to the john, John?” and “I’ll swim in your brook, Brooke.” All was forgiven when the ribs came out, however—we even spotted some girls who look like they haven’t had so much as an M&M this entire week chowing down on the pork products.—Derek Blasberg

Photo: Derek Blasberg

Paper cover boy Pharrell Williams (that’s him swinging an oversize croc Birkin on this month’s cover) took his time taking the stage at the party the magazine threw in his honor at Santos Party House last night. Although the event was billed to run from 8 to 11 p.m., the hip-hop star didn’t appear until 11:15. Once on, Williams was all business. Though he hasn’t seemed to mind having his picture snapped in the past (a given for anyone who attends a Louis Vuitton fashion show), he steered the crowd back to the music last night. “All right now, kids, turn off all the cameras and put them away,” he said. “And put your hands in the air. Say hell, yeah!” “He’s so cute,” said Paper’s Mickey Boardman, before leaving his handbag with Nigo to take laps around the room. “I love a party.” Pause. “Fine, I love a Paper party.”—Derek Blasberg

Photo: Derek Blasberg

Call it the Toledo metric: Henceforth, it will be possible to measure the fashion community’s devotion to a designer by the number of minutes its members are willing to spend in her un-air-conditioned apartment, in the middle of a heat wave. To judge by last night’s celebration in her honor, Isabel Toledo is adored indeed. “Ruben was painting, painting, painting until the very last minute,” she explained of the hand-decorated fans making the rounds at the fête, which marked the announcements by FIT that Toledo is the winner of this year’s Couture Council Award for Artistry of Fashion and that she will be the subject of a major retrospective in 2009. Co-hosted by FIT’s Valerie Steele and Bazaar editor Glenda Bailey, the event saw devotees including Yigal Azrouël, Christian Cota, and Narciso Rodriguez braving the AC-free conditions at Chez Toledo.—Maya Singer

Photo: Patrick McMullan/PatrickMcMullan.com

“I guess this is one of those situations where great word of mouth cuts both ways,” mused designer Eric Niccoli of Orthodox last night as he watched the crowd jostling to get inside the packed after-party for his men’s fashion week show. Cutting Niccoli’s way: His fête at Lower East Side club 205 was the must-do of the evening. Cutting the other way: The party, co-hosted by Oak, proved so popular that the open bar ran out an hour into the shindig, and downstairs, DFA DJs Jacques Renault and Justin Miller were contending with some moshpit-like conditions. Niccoli couldn’t have been more pleased—not least about the fact that so many of the revelers were women. No, it’s not like that: Orthodox’s hotly anticipated debut collection for girls hits stores next month, and if the scene at 205 last night is anything to go by, ladies eager to get their hands on Niccoli’s shrunken leather blazers and low-slung tapered trousers should heed the advice on the party’s invite: Show up early.—Maya Singer

Photo: Courtesy of Orthodox

When Amy Winehouse got the waxworks treatment at Madame Tussauds earlier this week, Preen designers Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi found themselves tasting a little immortality, too. The wax Winehouse displayed for posterity in London is wearing their citrus-colored "Power" dress that the un-wax Winehouse wore to the Brit Awards last year, and if looks especially familiar, that’s because a black version of the same dress is the one Gwyneth Paltrow is sporting in those innumerably reproduced photos from the "Iron Man" photo call in Rome this summer. Clearly, the dress was built to last. Preen fans on the lookout for the next classic frock from the brand can catch the Spring 2009 Preen show in New York this September; Bregazzi, however, won’t be making the trip across the pond from London. Right around runway time, she’s due to deliver a very different kind of masterpiece: She and Thornton are having a baby. More power to ‘em.

—Maya SingerPhoto: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images