Maria Cornejo, Cindy Sherman, and Nicole Phelps at the WSC Gala (Patrick McMullan)

"Sea lions are covered by a fine layer of fur," a woman announced over the loudspeaker as guests noshed on appetizers of smoked salmon and potato gratin at the Central Park Zoo Thursday evening.

"They are mammals and they eat mackerel," The Observer exclaimed, having learned a similar speech by heart during a recent run-in with dolphins in Jamaica.

"Whoa, how did you know that?" A reporter from The Wall Street Journal asked us. We were just that good.

As part of the Wildlife Conservation Society's 2012 gala--this year the theme was The Coasts of Patagonia, prompting more than one party-goer to ask where in the world that was--a pre-show involving the sea lions doing tricks was par the course.

"Last year, one of the sea lions was blind....she was the best," exclaimed one of the PR women for the event. We wandered off, only to be confronted by the flashing lights of Bill Cunningham's camera.

"I saw a woman wearing your dress in Brooklyn," the pseudo-Lynchian character said with his typical air of cryptic ambiguity; half-smiling and nodding his head in approval.

"Oh?"

"Yes...she wasn't selling it though," he countered, before moving on to the next guest.

Brooklyn seemed to be a theme of the evening, with Chilean designer Maria Cornejo talking about several dresses she had made in the theme of "leaves falling in Brooklyn."

"Where in Brooklyn do you live?" We asked.

"Carroll Gardens," she frowned. "It used to be so quiet, and now there are baby strollers everywhere!"

No baby strollers could be found in the zoo that evening, and until the 10 p.m. after-party, you'd be hard-pressed to find a person under the age of 25. (Perhaps it was the price of admission for $1,000.)

While table-hopping, we found ourselves next to Tinsley Mortimer in a mirrored mini-dress. "I've just been so busy with my book tour, I feel like this is like the first week I'm actually back-back," she told us breathlessly. But now Ms. Mortimer is back-back, with her man-man Prince Lorenzo Borghese sitting dotingly by her side. (We had wondered what had happened to the cosmetics king after his season on The Bachelor.)

One table over, Jean Shafiroff was telling her seatmates about her time in a Cambodian orphanage and the charity organizations in China. Next to her, Jamie Figg was talking about the wonders of Costco. The conversation was about as synchronous as putting the polar bears next to the giraffes.

We left around dessert time, when hundreds of collegiate-appropriate mini-donors began streaming in. "Is that Cindy Sherman?" We heard one of the girls squeal to her date. "From the MoMa??!"

It was. Apparently sea lions weren't the only mammals to watch for while visiting the zoo.

Susan Rockefeller and David Rockefeller, Jr. (Photo by Shaun Vakil)

Top-billed guest Wendi Murdoch was notably absent from last night’s Mission of Mermaids film premiere/pre-World Oceans Day celebration at MoMA. Whatever engagement precluded her attendance (intercepting another airborne pie, perhaps), the evening went on mostly unhampered. Guests still turned out to celebrate the 19-minute self-proclaimed “love letter to the ocean,” written, directed and narrated by Susan Rockefeller.

The evening, hosted by Ms. Rockefeller and her husband, David Rockefeller, Jr., was sponsored by luxury Swiss watchmakers Girard-Perregaux. Their former motto: “Watches for the few since 1791.” In honor of Ms. Rockefeller’s film and her husband’s nautical charity, Sailors for the Sea, the aforementioned few will have the opportunity to pick up a limited edition marine blue Girard-Perregaux Sea Hawk 1000m timepiece at an eco-friendly $10,900 price tag.

Hostess Ms. Rockefeller made her way breezily down the blue carpet in an abstract print shift. “I actually was inspired by the photographs of Ricardo Cisneros, who’ll be showing his photographs at the after-party,” she told us. “They’re so beautiful—they represent all the mystery of the ocean. So I went downtown and found this fabric and I had it made myself. The fabric is really soft and it feels like I’m in the water.”

Sowind Group (Girard-Perregaux’s parent company) CEO Michele Sofisti did not appear to feel like he was in water of any kind, but assured us he would be soon: ”In the summer I go to the ocean, but normally in the Mediterranean. Ocean water is always beautiful when it’s green, and when it’s protected.” Your move, Mrs. Murdoch.

IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond and wife Peggy Bonapace were also in attendance “We’re dedicated every year to coming out with an environmental movie, and saving the planet,” Ms. Bonapace told us.

From across the space we caught a glimpse of Bill Cunningham, camera in hand, but by the time we made it through the throng the beloved photographer was nowhere to be found. At 7:00, guests were corralled toward the theatre for the evening’s screening. The Observer was impressed by the unfaltering efforts of many to bring their beverages into the theatre, despite the steady stream of those being sent back to dispose of the offending drinks. We ditched our own wine (with minimal skulking, to our credit) and filed in. As the dim theatre filled with guests searching out seats near their friends, we couldn’t help but think of a high school assembly. But was anyone cutting?

To our right was George Frampton, Jr., former Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, who had recently returned from an Al Gore-helmed trip to Antarctica alongside the corporate Chuck Norris, Sir Richard Branson. Of the outing Mr. Frampton told us, “It’s amazing how narrow the ecosystem it is, but how rich. And it’s all about the ocean, because once you go a hundred yards inland in Antarctica, there’s nothing.”

And what was it like to travel with Sir Richard? “He’s involved in this deep dive thing, so he talked a lot about that. He seems a lot more interested in that than he is in running his company. But probably he can afford to be at this point,” he laughed.

Though our mind danced with visions of Virgin-branded emperor penguins and polar bears, model/actress Jo Champa soon purred a “Good evening,” and introduced the film.

Mission of Mermaids is equal parts marine love letter and plea to the viewer to do their part (eating sustainable seafood, refusing single-use plastic). In an effort to be as carbon-neutral as possible, the film is comprised mainly of found footage culled from YouTube and other sources, as well as footage shot by Ms. Rockefeller on the beaches of Long Island. She hopes to make the film available in its entirety on YouTube once it’s finished the festival circuit. Her husband mused in the post-screening Q&A, “I was just thinking there should be a YouSale, as well as a YouTube…” There was some laughter.

Guests trickled out of the theatre and into a waiting cache of statuesque women in gowns, each bearing a tray of stainless steel straws. “To re-use instead of plastic,” one woman instructed us. On the neck of each straw were the words “Protect what is precious.” Like one’s stainless steel straw, perhaps. Model Nina Manuel was seen popping hers into a blood orange daiquiri.

We caught up with Chip Henderson, manager of Girard-Perregaux’s Madison Avenue boutique. Had the limited edition Sea Hawk 1000m been flying off the shelves? “We’ve sold two through the boutique, we donated the two tonight [that were given to Mr. and Ms. Rockefeller], and the run is a total of fifteen pieces.” The Observer crossed paths with one partygoer who was so taken with the piece that he had already arranged to pick one up the next morning as a fifteenth anniversary present.

A History of Violence producer and entertainment lawyer Roger Kass echoed the sentiments of many in his praise for Mission of Mermaids: “I thought it really delivered on a really important message in a succinct way,” he told us.

When at last we were able to grab co-host David Rockefeller, Jr. he was every bit the supportive husband. “I was so proud of Susan and her film. I think any time an artist puts their work into what might be an intellectual community, you fear that things that are messages to the heart won’t be messages to the mind. But I feel she touched a lot today.”

And what does the future hold for Mr. Rockefeller’s steel straw? “Oh, sipping ice tea...”

Eventually the crowd thinned, the dulcet tones of Fatboy Slim’s “Praise You,” punctuated by the occasional clink of a straw falling to the floor. We overheard one waiter proudly tell a guest of the paper goods, “And did you know the napkins are actually biodegradable?”

As the room filled to capacity it became clear why Bill Cunningham was here: this night was about the dresses—almost to the point of sensory overload.

Selita Ebanks in her floor-length disco ball? “Oh God it’s mesmerizing, she looks so beautiful!” Not to mention Zac Posen in his chocolate brown double-breasted. And we spied the fashionable party trio that is Harry, Peter Brant Jr. and Michelle Harper.

"Look at those shoes!" we exclaimed.

“Damnit, purple suede. You can’t beat that,” replied a colleague, as we both peered back down at our comparatively average footwear.

Speaking of dandies, everyone’s favorite ex-pat Euan Rellie rolled in with a crew who appeared to be the remnants of an immaculately tailored stag party, a fact further emphasized when they seized an entire dinner table and dug into massive hunks of filet. “You know how these things go, bud," Mr. Rellie said between mouthfuls. "Sometimes the boys need a night out!”

Each elevator arriving at the 36^th floor ballroom brought with it a new wave of flashbulbs and floor-lengths, until one particular attendee broke the pattern: Doutzen Kroes. Purple pantsuit, ponytail, power stance. At some point during her mini photo-shoot with fellow Victoria’s Secret model Erin Heatherton we could have sworn we heard her humming “my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard.” Sadly, this fact was unverifiable.