ICE, ICE BABY: Arriving fashionably late to his 20th anniversary bash Tuesday night in Paris, Christian Lacroix cruised through the packed crowd and made a beeline for the bar. Not that he needed a stiff drink. Rather, with the late-day sun pouring through the windows at Georges atop the Pompidou museum, he needed to pose for photos next to a giant ice sculpture proclaiming the birthday of his couture house. "Before it melts!" he said, flashing a big smile and wrapping his arm around his wife, Françoise.

American retail executives showed up in force, along with a smattering of artists and couture-clad socials, including Daphne Guinness.

HEELING POWERS: Charlotte Casiraghi, Tatiana Santo Domingo, Eugenie Niarchos, Diana Widmaier-Picasso and Emma de Caunes were among the well-heeled guests who descended on the Ritz Club in London Tuesday night to fete Giuseppe Zanotti's Avenue Montaigne boutique. De Caunes said she's about to step into the director's chair for her own movie, to be named "Papa Was a Rolling Stone." Zanotti, meanwhile, disclosed ambitions to open a concept store in the Marais, stocking old records, antiques and, of course, his glitzy shoes. "I also have plans to open a hotel in Paris," he said.