The temperature was stuck at 14 degrees, but the fashion tribe, it seems, doesn’t need to burn calories to generate heat.
Last Thursday night, 70 members of the fashion elite attended a preview of L’Avenue, a clubby Parisian restaurant that has been transported to the eighth and ninth floors of Saks Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.
Attendees included actors (Jessica Chastain and Stephan James, who let slip that he will be a presenter at the Oscars), fashion models (Joan Smalls, Carolyn Murphy and Grace Elizabeth) and fashion designers (Kim Jones, who is the artistic director of Dior Men, and Joseph Altuzarra).
The nip-waisted crowd resisted trays of fried spring rolls that circulated during cocktail hour, tiptoed through a menu of black truffle risotto and creamy morel rigatoni as if it were a minefield and ignored dessert.
After dinner, guests repaired downstairs to a ski-chalet-themed lounge where cups of hot chocolate with marshmallows sat undisturbed. There were so many untouched macaron towers that it looked like someone had pulled the fire alarm during a baby shower.
The only Dionysian figure was Philippe Starck, the French designer who created the two-story space. At one point, he reached over the bar to grab a magnum of Champagne, before filling three flutes clutched in his other mitt.
“The salon is a feminine dream,” Mr. Starck said, emphasizing how the dining room contrasts with the more masculine lounge. “It’s ivory, it’s light, it’s soft, it’s warm. It’s like inside a jewel box, everything is to make a woman even more beautiful.”
Mr. Starck said it took him three years of visiting antiques stores and flea markets to source the eclectic objects that decorate the space. “It’s just sort of bric-a-brac, a private mess, a little surrealistic, with a nice surprise,” he said. “There is hidden somewhere a letter from Grace Kelly, with the envelope. It’s a game where you have to find all the hidden messages.”
Even the event’s gift bag contained a hidden message, of sorts. It was more macarons.
No Socks, No Problem
Just as some people didn’t need food to stay warm in last week’s polar vortex, others opted to go without socks.
Preppy summertime styles were all over the gala for Human Rights Campaign, an L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy group, at the Marriott Marquis on Saturday, when temperatures bottomed at 18 degrees. The fund-raiser honored Jordan Roth, a Broadway theater owner and producer, and Amandla Stenberg, the actress and activist.
“I’m freezing, but it’s worth it to pull this look off,” said Amit Patel, an oncologist from Jersey City, who flashed bare ankles between his tuxedo trousers and studded Christian Louboutin slippers. “The shoe itself is just so amazing, I think a sock would do it injustice.”
Stephanie Manns, a financial analyst from Scotland, paired a pink velvet J. Crew blazer and dark trousers with white Franco Sarto patent leather loafers. “With women, trying to find the right length of pants for socks I find can be quite difficult,” she said.
J. Alexander, a gender-nonconforming model coach and television personality, looked down the length of his 6-foot-4 frame to a pair of black Marco Delli sequined lace-ups.
He thought socks would have messed up the look, he said. Besides, he added: “Baby, when you’re coming out of your apartment into a car to the event, it’s never too cold.”
During dinner, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Senator Chuck Schumer delivered speeches criticizing President Trump, before remarks by Zac Posen, the fashion designer, and Chad Griffin, the campaign’s outgoing president.
Other politicos who passed through the room included Gale Brewer, the Manhattan borough president; Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the New York Senate majority leader; and Sean Patrick Maloney, Carolyn B. Maloney and Jerrold Nadler, all representatives of New York.
Mr. Nadler, who recently became chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, was among those who wore socks. “It never entered my mind not to,” he said. “It’s just normal dressing.”
