Anna Wintour, Karl Lagerfeld and Ingrid Sischy and the Gordon Parks Centennial Gala. (Leandro Justen/PatrickMcMullan.com)

We strolled into the Museum of Modern Art last Tuesday, for a gala honoring the centennial of the birth of the renowned photojournalist Gordon Parks, who passed away at 93 in 2006.

A quick nod to the door guy, and then promptly to the bar. Still off the sauce, we grabbed a seltzer and turned around to survey the scene, only to be immediately interrupted by a bronzed figure that had surveyed our less than macho bar order. “Did you just order a sparkling water, m’boy?” photographer Peter Beard asked us.

“Regrettably so,” we admitted to the man whose legendary life-long bender makes Bowie’s Thin White Duke phase look like rehab.

“Very sorry to hear that,” he said, extending a hand, the very one that he touched Cheryl Tiegs with so many years prior.

Mr. Beard spoke to us about the Gordon Parks Foundation. “I’ve been involved with it since before you were born, but it’s my wife Nejma who’s on the advisory board,” he replied proudly.

We noticed a wrinkle in the space-time continuum out of the corner of our eye. It was the monochromatic septuagenarian sun god of fashion: Karl Lagerfeld. He cut a swath through the crowd in his calculated yet effortless way that we’ve come to know and love, signaling that it was, in fact, time to sit down.

As we climbed the stairs to the second-floor atrium, it became clear that the seat-to-guest ratio was a bit off.  What should have been a subdued sit-down process quickly becomes a game of sudden-death musical chairs, but this wasn’t a pack of snotnose asthmatics in an elementary classroom. We were playing with Sarah Jessica Parker, Russell Simmons, and Anna Wintour.

Waiters and busboys frantically searched for extra chairs as more than a few tables, who’d paid big bucks for plates of filet, found themselves short a seat or two.

While extra chairs maintained a holding pattern above the heads of the rich and famous, we’d been cleared for landing. We sat next to James Murphy, of LCD Soundsystem, who was serving as the evening’s DJ. He admitted that he’s been a bit overworked lately, despite his retirement from the band.

“Originally we had no intention of filming the four-hour ‘last’ concert at Madison Square Garden, but at the eleventh hour we did. I’m still editing the thing together.”

We noted that the last concert was pseudo-religious evening for us, and Mr. Murphy hinted that was the idea behind the film, titled Shut Up and Play the Hits, which will be playing in theaters across the globe July 18, one night only.

“It’s for the people who didn’t get to experience it the way it was meant to be,” he said, seemingly still apologetic for the online ticket-sales debacle that caused the band to add three additional shows before the final performance last spring.

Anderson Cooper, son of Gloria Vanderbilt who was a long-time friend of Mr. Parks, took the stage and cued up the rest of the evening with a few anecdotes the man of the evening: “The guy made Shaft, people!” he exclaimed, leading into a heartwarming recounting of his interactions with the photographer as a young man.

Clive Davis, Annie Leibovitz, and John Legend followed, giving speeches laden with anecdotes, professional and personal, about Mr. Parks, whose body of work was expansive and will continue to touch many.

Williams was filling in for Nick Cannon, who at the last minute was unable to fill his role as emcee (yet Tweeted a photo of his and Mariah Carey's toddler son, Roc, "big pimpin in Italy!" on Tuesday afternoon). Williams told The Observer that her Memorial Day weekend took her from Atlantic City (for Beyonce's Big Post-Partum Concert) to Atlanta, where she got the call.

"So I went from Atlantic City, to Atlanta, to here today, hosting, performing, run-throughs, wardrobe fittings. Washed my hair today...hotel shampoo's good, you should use it!" she said, adding, "That was a lack-of-sleep comment."

The concert lured in the New York philanthropist crowd (along with fashion designers Donna Karan, Jason Wu and Joseph Altuzarra) with the ever popular and always tear-jerking combination of orchestras performing with pop stars.

The musical favorite of the night was, of course, the P.S. 22 Chorus—but isn’t bringing them in cheating, at this point? They began with a requisite tearjerker, covering Les Mis' "Castle on the Cloud," accompanied by the violist David Aaron Carpenter (who cemented his reputation as a young and cool violist by wearing a ruffled, sequined, untucked black shirt). The Chorus then broke into covers of "Somebody That I Used to Know" and "We Are Young," which provoked the first standing ovation of the night and more than a few adulatory "aww!"s.

John Legend opened with his song "If You're Out There" with the Salomé Chamber Orchestra. Later in the night, he introduced President Bill Clinton, who made a special guest appearance and kept the musical theme going in his opening cracks.

"When I graduated from high school, I had more musical scholarships than academic scholarships," the President said. "I took one of the academic scholarships and it's been downhill ever since."

The President's remarks focused on the eradication of hunger, but also noted obesity, one of his pet projects, and the trustworthiness of Lauren Bush Lauren, the founder of FEED. In fact, much of the night was devoted to lauding Lauren and celebrating FEED's fifth anniversary. The concert program featured a full-page ad for Lauren, in true yearbook-style, from the Lauren family: "We are proud to support your mission and passion...Ralph and Ricky, David, Andrew, Dylan and Paul."

Doting husband David Lauren showed The Observer a picture of Ms. Bush Lauren at yesterday's rehearsal on his iPhone, noting that much of their Memorial Day weekend was devoted to preparations. "She's very cool under pressure," he said.

Ms. Bush Lauren managed to make it through the night with only one joking mention of her famously palindromic name, from Christian Courtin-Clarins, the very French chairman of Clarins ("cla-raunssss"). But he also poked fun at his own Francophone pronunciations of English words: “I say ‘famine’ because if I say ‘hunger’ I won’t know if I’m ‘hungry’ or ‘angry.’”

FEED produces canvas bags and accessories that are sold to benefit the U.N. World Food Programme’s School Feeding program, with a modus operandi not unlike that of TOMS Shoes. (Philanthropy! Fashion! Canvas!)

“A lot of the big luxury brands are also getting into philanthropy,” Nina Garcia told The Observer during the pre-concert cocktail reception. “I have to hope that more and more of the designers and fashion companies will be involved. We have made a difference—we made a big difference when AIDS started. The fashion community really rallied and showed its strength.”

Bill Clinton (Getty Images)

We suppose we’re stuck in the city for a couple more days (now that we’ve opened the house, all week is spent calculating which invitees would confer the most social capital!). Maybe we’ll find some potential house guests at tonight’s concert for the FEED Foundation. Put on by Clarins, the evening is to feature an appearance by Bill Clinton as well as performances by Natasha Bedingfield, John Legend and the preternaturally busy Alan Gilbert. (Too bad Mr. Clinton is now far too much the elder statesman to jump in on sax!) The Clarins Group hopes the party moves them toward their goal of providing one million meals to children around the world; we’re happy to contribute and will have one eye open, looking around the theater for those chic Clarins sisters.

Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, 8pm; tickets and information can be found at bit.ly/MillionMealsConcert.

And he intends to make the most of his fame, including a DETAILS-thrown party for his new book, BORN TO BE BRAD: My Life and Style, So Far.
Since the most fascinating part of the book was Mr. Goreski's obsession with musical theater--we considered bringing him our Les Mis shirt as an offering, since he mentioned losing his awhile back, but then thought better of it--we asked him to come up with some updated looks for our favorite shows for us.

The New York Observer: Favorite play?

Brad Goreski: Oliver! It's because my very first musical I was in, and I played Oliver. And I played Fagin when I was 16.

NYO: So how would you dress Oliver! today?

BG: I would design them in all workhouse-wear, which would be casual, and then we would go into the oom-pah-pah bar, kind of like full going-out sevens. Then we'd have Mr. Brownlow in velvet-trimmed suits...little baby suits with bow-ties. Tons of white dresses, an homage to Nancy.

NYO: And how would you dress Fagin?

BG: Rick Owens.

NYO: Okay...now how would you style the cast of Fiddler on the Roof?

BG: You know, I never really liked that play. One of my least favorites.

NYO: Too dark?

BG: Something like that. I love Miss Saigon, The Secret Garden, Falsettoland...I just saw Jesus Christ Superstar...

NYO: It's hard to improve on the Superman shirt-and-suspenders look. Who on Broadway would you most like to style?

BG: Ricky Martin in Evita!

NYO: Wait, you want to restyle the character's look in the show, or you want style Ricky?

BG: I would just like to style him, period. I mean, it's Ricky Martin.

(Photo by Benjamin Lozovsky/BFAnyc.com)