This season's party machine wasted no time kicking into high gear.

On Wednesday, the Rainbow Room was the site of a Couture Council of the Museum of FIT luncheon honoring Alber Elbaz, in town especially for the occasion (and then, he said, he's back on a plane "to face the blank sheet of paper once again and try to create something beautiful"). The room was awash in his designs as guests including Chloë Sevigny, Tiffany Dubin, Iman, Charlotte Moss and Lauren Davis enjoyed lobster and risotto.

"I met him at his L.A. trunk show. I felt like I'd known him forever," enthused Demi Moore. "And he's not too attached to his creations. He once cut off a hem right in front of me!"

Elbaz accepted his honor with a moving paean to the strength and beauty of women, calling himself "a dream maker." Most in the room would agree, although co-chair Linda Evangelista did have a few choice words for the designer when he tried to puff up the collar on her blouse. "Alber, you don't know anything about fashion!" she chided with mock reproof.

The night before, the Champagne-hungry were out en masse. Van Cleef & Arpels pulled out all the stops for its Une Journée à Paris affair, drawing a crowd that spanned from the farthest stretches of old-school socials (Audrey Gruss) to the nearest reaches of up-and-coming starlets (Lake Bell). Held at the Hammerstein Ballroom, the evening included a fashion show, a performance by Lido cabaret dancers and a mini concert by rocker chicks The Plasticines.

Too bad the narrow entryway and overwhelming guest response had people such as Susan Fales-Hill, Liz Goldwyn, Kate and Laura Mulleavy, Jamee Gregory and Irina Lazareanu bottlenecked at the entrance or locked out altogether as celebrity photo ops for Mischa Barton, Vanessa Carlton and Ashley Olsen took precedence.