RIGHT: Amber Valletta. RIGHT COLUMN: Charlize Theron. Edgar and Clarissa Bronfman. Anna Wintour. Zac Posen. Jennifer Lopez with Stephano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce. Rénée Zellweger. INSET, BELOW: Eva Mendes.

OT EVEN an unfashionable downpour that had started earlier in the day could stop the fashion world’s style mavens, Hollywood’s brightest stars and New York High Society’s movers and shakers from attending the April 26 Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Benefit Gala to celebrate the opening of the Institute’s latest exhibit, Dangerous Liaisons: Fashion and Furniture in the 18th Century. Hosted by Academy Award-winning actress Rénée Zellweger (in a gold back-bustled Carolina Herrera gown), Vogue’s supreme stylemeister Anna Wintour (sparkling in Christian Dior) and Asprey’s co-chairmen, Lawrence Stroll, Silas Chou and Edgar Bronfman, Jr, guests paid $3,500 per ticket to what is seen as the party of the year.
   Guests were greeted by a museum façade brightly lit in purple (signifying the signature colour of sponsor Asprey) and were ushered into the museum’s Great Hall, where the pre-dinner cocktail hour was held. Robert Isabell, New York high society’s favourite party planner, was in charge of putting together the evening’s décor, and he did a fine job in adding to the glamour factor of the event. The evening belonged to Asprey, reflected in the purple and white floral arrangements (and linens) on the tables, as well as the use of its own botanical porcelain china and the Murano crystal collections used for each place setting.
   The night was all about who’s wearing what, who came with whom and who were the night’s biggest fashion victims. Charlize Theron was one of the night’s winners in a beautiful black Christian Dior Couture gown and some seriously expensive jewellery. Revlon spokeswoman Eva Mendes wore Zac Posen, who incidentally was the night’s biggest fashion victim. Mr Posen’s costume (the right word for what he was wearing) consisted of white pants, silk shirt, vest and red cummerbund scarf, which made him very much look like a rejected extra from Johnny Depp’s hit movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: the Curse of the Black Pearl. But I don’t think he cares much about what people think of him outside of the runway arena, where is finally living up to the potential he showed so early in his young career.
   Kim Cattrall was enchanting in come-thither Donna Karan. Lucy Liu was deliciously sexy in Emanuel Ungaro. Famke Janssen (Goldeneye, X2) sparkled in Louis Vuitton. Grammy award-winning rocker Sheryl Crow was almost unrecognizable in understated Ralph Lauren. With her hair all pulled back and her looking so pulled in, it was as if she was a Stepford wife. Beautiful but a bit creepy. (Her new relationship with Tour de France champion cyclist Lance Armstrong must be going well, because she exuded confidence and happiness). Anne Heche (in Valentino), newly minted Broadway star (in Twentieth Century) temporarily reverted back to her lost-in-insanity moment with a scary fright wig that left almost everyone speechless. Hamish Bowles, Vogue’s European editor-at-large, loved her ‘out-to-lunch Gainsborough hair’ and thought that the combination of her outfit and the hair ‘qualifies her as dangerous.’ There are not too many people who would disagree.
   Newlywed Jennifer Lopez, of course, takes the cake in her ongoing war with the press and her adoring fans. With beau and new husband, Marc Anthony, sneaking in (and dashing by the photographers as if he was late for a meeting with his dealer) 30 minutes before her arrival with Stephano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce (of Dolce & Gabbana), Ms Lopez was just about as accommodating as she could be—which was very little. Don’t believe the hype about her plans to change her demanding ways: she’s still one of the biggest divas out there.
   From the fashion world, there were more hits than misses. Carolyn Murphy (in Gucci), Sophie Dahl (in Alberta Ferretti), Amber Valletta (in Maggie Norris Couture and John Galliano), Linda Evangelista (in Jean-Paul Gaultier), Stella Tennant (in Burberry) and Natalia Vodianova (in Calvin Klein) all represented themselves and the industry quite well in their choice of dresses. Ms Valletta, an aspiring actress, was singled out for both praise (‘I think it was brave of her to do the hair, the corset, and the skirt! There’s an excessive amount of information in that skirt. But I love that she did an eighteenth-century hair don’t,’ wrote Hamish Bowles in New York) and criticism (‘She looks alike an exaggerated barrister!’ in the words Ann Roth, Hollywood costume designer, New York).

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