Anna Wintour, Diane von Furstenberg, Oscar de la Renta and Sarah Jessica Parker

Quelle chance that the venerable philanthropist and socialite Jean Shafiroff invited The Observer to wine and dine at her table at the David H. Koch Theater for Fashion Institute of Technology’s 2012 Couture Council of The Museum luncheon.  Despite the hefty $1,000-a-head price tag, around 600 guests, including Sarah Jessica Parker, Barbara Walters, Anna Wintour, Simon Doonan, Fe Fendi, Diane von Furstenberg, editrix and realty star Nina Garcia, Carolina Herrera, Mario Buatta, Yaz Hernandez, Martha Stewart, Dennis Basso, Ruben and Isabel Toledo, YUE editor Chiu-Ti Jansen and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, paraded uptown for the ruckus.  FIT’s clout was undeniable with so many powerful New Yorkers packed into the gold-leaf foyer. Truth be told, 2012 Couture Council Artistry of Fashion honoree Oscar de la Renta certainly deserved credit for the monumental turn-out.

The festivities took place early at 11.30a.m., with the sylphlike, the supremely coiffed, and the magnificently nipped-and-tucked sloshing back glasses of rosé and chardonnay. It was a bit too early for The Observer, but we took in the self-appreciating, Fashion Week crowd with great enjoyment. Kisses and posing were promptly cut short, as the Couture Council committee and organizers ushered the aristocrats and fashion frenzy to their tables.

Then a few speeches that went largely ignored and lunch was served.

“I don't know where this was swimming early,” grumbled one guest, poking at some nondescript white fish. “The Hudson river!” he suggested, answering his own query, “It's a boring plate.”

Since no one exactly gobbled down the cuisine—it’s not de rigueur in these circles—the program seemed to move along swiftly.

Mayor Bloomberg, who presented Mr. de la Renta with the 2012 Artistry of Fashion Award, started with a series of well placed jokes about his fashion status to warm up the crowd, before acknowledging the legendary Mr. de la Renta.

“Oscar is more than a fashion visionary... You can't swing a stiletto without hitting one... I'm his biggest fan,” the mayor said. “His clothes have been to more award shows than Meryl Streep.”

After a standing ovation, the CFDA Lifetime Achievement Award winner took the stage to accept his award from the mayor.

“I live in the best city, in the best country,” began Mr. de la Renta.

“I'm so proud to be here today with so many of my friends who have been important to my career. I love what I do.”

The 80-year-old designer who left his native Dominican Republic to study in Spain, has held leading roles at Balenciaga, Lanvin, Balmain and Estée Lauder, before beginning his eponymous label to critical and financial success. Today, his designs are coveted by editors, starlets and the mega-rich alike.

“Fashion is not really about what I did but what I'm doing now," Mr. de la Renta concluded, “I've been at it 50 years and I'm still leaning.”

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.

Chanel’s Little Black Jacket is having a moment—though it’s not like this classic hasn’t been having a moment ever since Coco drew up the pattern for the look that established her as the greatest couturiere of her time.

But this June, Chanel is celebrating its iconic mascot with a travelling photo exhibit featuring images from the forthcoming book, The Little Black Jacket: Chanel’s Classic Revisited. Due out this fall, the book was born out of a collaboration between none other than Karl Lagerfeld and Vogue Paris’ former editor in chief, Carine Roitfeld who styled various celebrities and personalities wearing the little black jacket while Lagerfeld stood behind the camera capturing the reinvention of this wardrobe staple with black and white film.

It comes to no surprise that, with their powers combined, Lagerfeld and Roitfeld recruited some of the biggest names in fashion, music, film and society to model for The Little Black Jacket. Some of the bold-faced names featured in the book include Alexander Wang, Joan Smalls, Yoko Ono, Charlotte Casiraghi, Sarah Jessica Parker, Theophilus London, Elizabeth Olsen, Sofia Coppola and Anna Wintour (who modeled with her back to the camera, but we’d recognize that signature bob anywhere!).

The exhibit launched in Tokyo this past April and is set to travel to eight different countries, making its appearance in New York on June 8th through June 18th at 18 Wooster Street. While the exhibit will include over 100 photographs, Chanel boutiques throughout the city will also take part in the homage, presenting a selection of jackets from the Paris-Bombay Métiers d’art Collection.