The lobby of the New York Public Library was transformed into an English garden for Monday night's Upstairs at the Library CFDA Awards viewing party, complete with wicker garden furniture, sisal rugs, cheery floral arrangements and trailing ivy draped from the marble balconies. While up-and-coming designers like Erin Fetherston and Nima Taherzadeh sipped champagne amid the topiary-strewn video monitors, fashion and Hollywood heavyweights strolled up the red carpet around the corner on 42nd Street before being whisked into an auditorium in the basement of the library for the 2008 CFDA Fashion Awards gala (which, truth be told, felt much less grand and gracious than in years past, due to the poorly planned logistics - and us vs them politics - of separating the fashion world into exclusionary Upstairs/Downstairs gatherings).

Womenswear Designer of the Year nominee Marc Jacobs arrived with a giggling Victoria Beckam on his arm - he sporting brand-new mutton chops, she in a one-shouldered heart strewn confection. Eva Mendes posed with her date (and Womenswear nominee), Francisco Costa of Calvin Klein, while further down the photo op line, Eva Longoria struck posed with Menswear nominee Tom Ford while the flashbulbs popped like crazy.

Naomi Campbell dazzled in autumn/winter 2008 YSL, accompanied by the ginormous André Leon Talley, who wore a pink snakeskin coat and a bejeweled white turban, making him look like a Jolly Green style swami.

But the most memorable - and comical - red carpet moment came when 30 Rock star Tina Fey was posing for the photographers and suddenly got a panic stricken look on her face. "Anna's coming!" she mouthed silently to the photographers while pointing frantically towards the street, before sprinting out of the way to let lensman snap Vogue editrix Anna Wintour. Let the Awards begin!

CFDA president Diane von Furstenberg opened with the usual ceremonial blah blah, followed by MC Fran Lebowitz, who made a few barbed stand-up style jokes before introducing Calvin Klein, who gave a heartfelt speech honoring Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Carolina Herrera.

The designer's work was showcased in a lovely black and white film that featured models striding around the streets of New York, with only their CH finery shown in glorious Technicolor. After thanking her hardworking staff, Herrera closed by thanking New York "for opening your arms to me".

The audience opened its arms to Accessory Design winner Tory Burch, who beat out Marc Jacobs and Michael Kors for the prize, which was presented by Tina Fey and SNL's Amy Poehler. A clever video montage showed a trio of girls wearing Marc Jacobs' accessories to get cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery, sporting Burch to go dancing at Beatrice Inn and donning Kors to ride around town in the back of a limo. "Wow, thank you," said the visibly choked up Burch. "This is beyond surreal."  Also surreal: turning around backstage and literally bumping into Board of Director's Special Tribute recipient Michael Bloomberg (aka, New York City's Mayor), and presenter Ralph Lauren. Th-a-a-at's fashion, folks!

Fittingly, Sex and the City vixen Kim Cattrall announced the "incredibly sexy" Menswear nominees (Michael Bastian, Thom Browne and Tom Ford). "[Men's] is what they felt I'd really be best at," she told me backstage after presenting. "I guess because Samantha's such a man eater."

Tom Ford took home the trophy after the audience viewed a very funny take-off of the HBO series In Treatment, in which each of the three nominees had a faux therapy session with Gabriel Byrne's character, Dr. Paul Weston - during which they discussed their work and challenges therein. "It was easy," said Ford of filming the mockumentary (which was done by splicing the designers into existing footage from the show). "I used to be an actor before I was a designer - I was never a good actor as you saw, which is why I became a fashion designer. But it was fun." As for winning the award, Ford told me that "when your own industry - and a great industry, I might add - nominates you for this award, it's the equivalent, if you're an actor or a director, of getting an Academy Award in that your peers are voting for you." "So that makes it very meaningful and really kind of validates for you what you've done. It's also my first CFDA award as Tom Ford and my own company and so that means a lot to me, too."

Victoria Beckham was just happy to make it offstage without flubbing any of her lines after having joined forces with Eva Mendes and Maggie Gyllenhaal to present the Womenswear Designer of the Year Award to Calvin Klein designer Francisco Costa - who was nominated alongside Marc Jacobs and Proenza Schouler's Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez (ironically, the same designers he was nominated with back in 2006, the first time he won). "I always get so nervous," Posh confided to me. "I'm rubbish, absolutely rubbish at doing things like that. I just glad it's over and done with. I've sung in front of millions of people but when it comes to doing something as simple as talking, I completely go to pieces..."

Costa also appeared as though he might go to pieces, but for a different reason entirely. "I think [winning a second time] means more, actually," he said softly while staring incredulously as the trophy in his hand. "I swear, it really does." Why? "Because they voted for me again, it's not a fluke. I don't know, somehow it feels like it's substantiating, you know what I mean? Like the industry really recognises you once again; that you work so hard. "It means everything," said Rodarte's Laura Mulleavy after she and her sister, Kate, won the Swarovski Womenswear Award (Alexander Wang and Thakoon Panichgul had also been nominated). "It's just a big moment, and it's very hard to describe it because when you go and sit in the audience, you feel so overwhelmed by everyone there and the history of the business and how everyone comes together to celebrate something we all do."

Philip Crangi was also celebrating a big win for Accessory Design. "It's really amazing. I really didn't think I would be winning this time. Justin Giunta [of Subversive] is an amazingly talented guy and Joy Gryson's work is so great," he said of his fellow nominees. "I just thought it was a pretty level playing field. So I feel very lucky to have won."

Although he found being on stage "quite scary," International Award Winner Dries Van Noten said he was thrilled to be recognised by the American fashion industry because "it's confirmation that people like what I do."

Monday is such a big day for the designers that we decided to keep it casual, resplendent in a Diane von Furstenberg dress and Christopher Kane for Swarovski necklace. The annual soiree had, in years past, taken place at Top of the Rock in a much more formal setting. It's more down to earth this way, as Nadja Swarovski personally greeted each arriving guest along with CFDA executive director Steven Kolb underneath components of the "Light Sock" chandelier artwork created by Diller Scofidio + Renfro for Swarovski Crystal Palace.

Four of the floors of the five-story building were open for curiosity seekers, each level had its own theme. Rodarte's Kate and Laura Mulleavy, Thakoon Panichgul, Stan Herman and Philip Crangi enjoyed the house Cuban band called Grupo Irek that performed on the main floor (lead signer, Chino Pons, startled some staunch Democrats with his uncanny resemblance to Senator Barack Obama), while a buffet feast was served on the second floor much to the delight of Maria Cornejo, Simon Doonan, Doo-Ri Chung, Patrik Ervell and Scott Sternberg.

A third floor was also open, but few braved the steep stairs in their stilettos. It's kind of like a very chic bordello townhouse in New Orleans. me with, and dressed, Paula Patton (Chanel Iman, meanwhile, also donned Kors, but utilized the belt as a head wrap). The five-time accessories nominated designer joked that, having failed to pick up a statue, she's already grown accustomed to the scenario. I'm beyond all of that by this point. Joan Allen told me that the last time she was nominated, for the third time, at the Oscars, she just had fun.

The new format—an awards ceremony followed by dinner, rather than the traditional mix of the two—was pretty much a success all around. Brevity, is the soul of wit. And last night's faster, shorter, funnier CFDA Awards. I think it's the best one I've ever been to.

A list of all the CFDA winners

WOMENSWEAR DESIGNER OF THE YEAR
Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein Collection

MENSWEAR DESIGNER OF THE YEAR
Tom Ford

ACCESSORY DESIGNER OF THE YEAR
Tory Burch

SWAROVSKI AWARD FOR WOMENSWEAR
Kate Mulleavy and Laura Mulleavy for Rodarte

SWAROVSKI AWARD FOR MENSWEAR
Scott Sternberg for Band of Outsiders

SWAROVSKI AWARD FOR ACCESSORY DESIGN
Philip Crangi

  

The select few who are lucky enough to snag an invite to the annual Costume Institute gala (a.k.a. the Oscars of the East) are encouraged, nay, obliged, to push the sartorial envelope. And with this year's "Superheroes" theme—one that's brimming with caped possibility—the task appeared almost too easy. But as it turned out, many of the glitterati making their way up the steps of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art had circumvented the theme and opted for glamour served straight up. Fortunately for the ever-growing group of stylewatchers who monitor this event with the intensity of a comic-book nerd on the trail of a first-run copy of Spider-Man, others embraced the night's motif.

Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour, who co-hosted the gala with Giorgio Armani, Julia Roberts, and George Clooney, set the tone in a space-age Chanel couture bolero and gown, modeled after the X-Men's Storm. Lake Bell, a guest of the magazine, wore a Balmain dress zipping with Shazam lightning bolts picked out in crimson beads. Certainly Claire Danes looked tough (and chic) enough to save lives in a graphic, strappy Narciso Rodriguez gown. And in her gold, almost winged Atelier Versace dress, a glowing Amber Valletta took the superhero to heavenly heights. Gareth Pugh, meanwhile, was dressed as Karl Lagerfeld, giant rings and all. His rationale: ″I came as my superhero.″

Some guests were first-timers to the Met and its attendant paparazzi gauntlet. "When they take a photo of me, I'm just like, 'Oh, my God, that's amazing that you know who I am,'" A frazzled Blake Lively accidentally knocked a tape recorder out of a reporter's hand. "Oh, my gosh, I am so sorry," she said, sounding genuinely mortified. "My superhero power is breaking your thing." Of course, with an event as major as this, merely getting dressed requires near-heroic feats. "My husband put my Spanx on me tonight because I had wet nails," said Thandie Newton.

Once inside, guests were ushered past three enormous Nathan Crowley statues of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman and into the Temple of Dendur, where trumpeters heralded the dinner call. "Hail Caesar!" joked Chris Noth. At the Armani table, Julia Roberts and Victoria Beckham bonded over motherhood, while Tom Cruise leaned over Katie Holmes and licked her neck. Following dinner, guests were treated to a medley of songs from the Public Theater's production of Hair, but the star performance of the night came later at the Bungalow 8 after-party, where Fergie and John Mayer serenaded birthday boy George Clooney with a rendition of "You Make Me Feel So Young."

The little shindig, which also honored Carine Roitfeld and Olivier Lalanne of Vogue Hommes, drew designers Sylvia Venturini Fendi, Roberto Cavalli, Alessandro Dell'Acqua, and Ennio Capasa, and every visiting editor in town. A multicourse dinner was served in the ballroom on Crespi silver by the family's own servants and included such everyday dishes as aspic of seasonal vegetables. "I could live here for a year," said one guest. We'd settle for a night or two.