The trouble with last night's party at the Met, if I may speak frankly, is that it was a little like being sucked into a sequined wind tunnel. It started with a little breeziness before the superhero displays—Oh, hey, Narciso and Claire! Hi Liya! Alessandra! Isaac! Diane! Tom!—and then, suddenly, people seemed to be flying around the room....But I thought Anna Wintour looked great in her Chanel dress—fantastical fashion....And though I didn't see Victoria Beckham until later, in pictures, her lace Armani coat dress was definitely a look—Hollywood grandeur with a wink. Zac Posen and his date Kate Mara, in outfits painfully inspired by Superman, get the try-harder award. I'll be interested to know who you all thought looked super—and not.

One could probably read as many metaphors about the transformative power of fashion in the silver-sequined, elaborately padded Chanel gown that Anna Wintour wore to the Costume Institute gala on Monday night as one could in Superman's cape, which happened to be hanging in a gallery down the hall. The floor-length dress had curiously curling crescents attached at the hips and the shoulders, giving Ms. Wintour, the Vogue editor and overseer of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's annual Party of the Year, the fuller-bodied appearance of Botticelli's Venus on her clamshell. She seemed to be broadcasting a message of total earthly control. (Or it could have been that all the Vogue assistants standing along the way to Ms. Wintour's receiving line had been strictly instructed not to speak to anyone, not even to people they recognized, or that so many guests were unusually prompt.) With this year's gala titled "Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy," Ms. Wintour pointed out that she was Storm, the "X-Men" character. "I control the weather," she said.

Blake Lively wore black gloves and a snug black Ralph Lauren gown involving feathers. She said that her favorite superhero was "Spider-Man. Cause he's awesome! He gets to swing around, and, I don't know....I've always seen pictures growing up, being a teenager, and thought, 'I'd love to go to that, a night just to dress up in ball gowns.' And here I am!"...Vogue editor and hostess Anna Wintour was the first to arrive, at 6:33 p.m., wearing a Chanel gown adorned with what appeared to be seahorse tails and accompanied by daughter Bee Shaffer, who required two men, including the formidable Vogue editor at large André Leon Talley, to carry the train of her voluminous blue Nina Ricci dress up the stairs....Designer Phillip Lim came with teenage model-of-the-moment Chanel Iman,..."I've been here last year, and this is her first time here, so she's the newbie...it's a lot of pressure."

It was a silver moment for Julia Roberts, wearing a swoop-neck dress by Giorgio Armani, who underwrote the event. Her co-chairs were Clooney and Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue, who wore a Superwoman creation by Chanel with snakes of padding at shoulders and thighs. Fashion's superheroes included Donatella Versace, who dressed Janet Jackson in a cut-away back dress, Karl Lagerfeld, wearing a sparkling silver jacket while he dressed Kate Bosworth in a multicolored patchwork of vintage Chanel; and Valentino, who was with the model Claudia Schiffer wearing a frilled blue dress from the retired designer's last collection....The cast of the newly revived "Hair" sang "The Age of Aquarius" and "Let the Sun Shine In." David Bowie, sitting with his wife, Iman, looked pained at this new rendition of the counterculture musical.

[George] Clooney joked that he had wanted to dress as Batman, but the costume was already in the exhibition, so he settled for a midnight blue Giorgio Armani tuxedo. Anna Wintour, shimmering in silver cyber-couture, by Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel, declared: "I stopped the rain"....The tennis star Venus Williams and American Vogue's editor-at-large, André Leon Talley, shared a red satin, super-cape for two that was custom-made by Chanel. The actress Scarlett Johansson wore a Dolce & Gabbana gown with a large diamond solitaire which announced her engagement to the actor, Ryan Reynolds. The designer Marc Jacobs confessed to wearing Superman underwear beneath his tuxedo....The "Superheroes" exhibition opens with a mirrored illusion of Clark Kent morphing into Superman and features radical catwalk creations by some of the world's top designers and comic book costumes from Hollywood blockbusters such as Spiderman and Batman.

It's the Oscars of the fashion industry, but if the looks on parade at Monday's Costume Institute gala in New York were anything to go by, that industry is in a sorry state of disarray. Hosted by Vogue editor Anna Wintour (in a Starlight Express moment, perhaps taking the superhero theme somewhat literally) and Giorgio Armani (looking as buff, relaxed and fashionably weathered as ever) the normally ultra-glamorous event fell flat as the proverbial pancake, where the frocks were concerned at least....how about Katie Holmes, who's clearly sharing a sunbed with her new best friend, Victoria Beckham? Someone really ought to have warned her that tomato red and orange is a challenging colour combination and that her razor-sharp bob is more Playmobil nurse than intergalactic heroine. And what of the aforementioned Mrs Beckham? Even by this particular fashion car crash's standards, her dress was disastrous. Nancy Reagan circa 1985, anyone? That cool-as-a-cucumber chignon, meanwhile, isn't kidding anyone. A Hitchcock heroine the artist formerly known as Posh most certainly is not.

Armani dressed Clooney and Roberts. "He asked me very sweetly if I'd be his date," Roberts, wearing a platinum Giorgio Armani Privé gown, said about the designer, who also outfitted other A-list celebrities, including Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Beyoncé Knowles and John Mayer....Clooney was taking it all in stride. "I get to have a drink. It's easy for me," he said. As for the superhero theme, he said he had a favorite when he was a kid: "Well, you know, I loved one that no one ever talks about, the Green Hornet. He was really cool." [Thandie] Newton, in a short dress in black lace with a long cape, said, "I like this because it's one look — and two looks. She made up her own superhero inspiration. "I'm Love Woman," she said. "I wanted to do a bit of skin."

"I think the secret of a good exhibition is when it happens very easily, which is what happened here," Anna Wintour told us of the Metropolitan Museum's Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy installation. We had many more looks in the exhibition than we could use, so [the idea] is obviously, once you start to look, really out there. It was largely Andrew [Bolton, the exhibition curator]'s vision that brought it all together but we've been very fortunate that at the same time," she added. "All these movies are coming out and the Olympics are coming up, so it all sort of came together."

Holy Stars, Batman! It was a celeb-studded affair at the Metropolitan Museum on Monday night as the world's fashion elite and Hollywood heavyweights met on Fifth Ave. to kick off the Costume Institute's latest exhibit, "Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy." And while the night's theme celebrated cat suits and unitards, the red carpet featured far more glam getups: Co-hosts Julia Roberts and George Clooney giggled together as they strolled in wearing Giorgio Armani. "I wore the dress because he made it for me," said Roberts, who gave the designer, who sponsored the evening with Vogue magazine, a hug....Fashion darling Zac Posen took the theme seriously, rocking out Clark Kent-worthy spectacles and revealing his own secret identity. "I worked here as an intern for three years," he said. "I got paid $60 to do the event."

• Keith Richards for Louis Vuitton = Awesome. [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• Amy Winehouse played a Fendi party in Paris and talked about her mumps onstage before offering some gratitude to, like, someone: "Thanks for asking me to play. Whoever asked me to play." [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• Meta Kate Olsen came dressed as Karl Lagerfeld for the Chanel show Friday. [WWD, 4th item]
  
• Miss J (Alexander of Top Model) to WaPo fashion critic Robin Givhan on a Nina Ricci model: "She has that hungry walk. She's mad because she's so hungry!" [Off the Runway]
  
• Formerly anorexic model Crystal Renn on why a girl's gotta eat: "How can you be happy if you're working out for five hours a day? People want to hire happy models. You need fat to think!" Um, modeling requires thought? [Telegraph]
  
• Who is the man who would wear Juicy Couture cologne? [BellaSugar]

• Sayeth Heidi Klum: "Victoria's Secret should do men's underwear, Seal would love that. Bloomers are just not cool, boxers are all right, but there are so many sexier things we could do for guys." Like, just get 'em naked? [Times of India]
• Expensive shit alert! The $110,000 purse, only at Bergdorf Goodman. [Chic Report]
• And on that note, Steve & Barry's (home of Sarah Jessica Parker's "Bitten" line) just received an $197 million loan from GE. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Agyness Deyn is England's best-dressed celeb. [Telegraph]
• Anna Wintour did not attend the Lanvin show in Paris on Friday. But French TV personality Mlle Agnes did...costumed as Wintour: "Getting through security was mighty speedy." [WWD, 2nd item]
• The perm is back! [Telegraph]
• Sean "Diddy" Combs: Helping people every day! Or at least designing scarves to benefit Dress for Success. [WWD, 2nd item]
• Donna Karan: Helping people every day! Or at least having a garage sale of her old shit in the name of charity. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Helena Christensen: Helping people every day! Or at least auctioning stamps with her kid's pic on them on eBay for charity. [Sassybella]
• Faced with the coming recession, women are cutting back on their spending habits before men are. [MediaPost]
• Yay for Lush for no longer using palm oil, since it's wicked bad for the environment. [Guardian]

And the nominees are:
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama
Cate Blanchett - Elizabeth: The Golden Age; Julie Christie - Away From Her; Jodie Foster - The Brave One; Angelina Jolie - A Mighty Heart; Keira Knightley - Atonement
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Amy Adams - Enchanted; Nikki Blonsky - Hairspray; Helena Bonham Carter - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street; Marion Cotillard - La Vie En Rose; Ellen Page - Juno

Best Performance by an Actress In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Cate Blanchett - I'm Not There; Julia Roberts - Charlie Wilson's War; Saoirse Ronan - Atonement; Amy Ryan - Gone Baby Gone; Tilda Swinton - Michael Clayton

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Drama
Patricia Arquette - Medium (NBC); Glenn Close - Damages (FX NETWORK); Minnie Driver - The Riches (FX NETWORK); Edie Falco - The Sopranos (HBO); Sally Field - Brothers & Sisters (ABC); Holly Hunter - Saving Grace (TNT); Kyra Sedgwick - The Closer (TNT)

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy
Christina Applegate - Samantha Who? (ABC); America Ferrera - Ugly Betty (ABC); Tina Fey - 30 Rock (NBC); Anna Friel - Pushing Daisies (ABC); Mary-Louise Parker - Weeds (SHOWTIME)

Best Performance by an Actress In A Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Bryce Dallas Howard - As You Like It (HBO); Queen Latifah - Life Support (HBO); Debra Messing - The Starter Wife (USA); Sissy Spacek - Pictures Of Hollis Woods (CBS); Ruth Wilson - Jane Eyre (PBS)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Rose Byrne - Damages (FX NETWORK); Rachel Griffiths - Brothers & Sisters (ABC); Katherine Heigl - Grey's Anatomy (ABC); Samantha Morton - Longford (HBO); Anna Paquin - Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee (HBO); Jaime Pressly - My Name Is Earl (NBC)

• Oh, Christ. There is going to be a Sex and the City lingerie line by Cosabella as a tie-in with the movie. Predictably, there will be four mini-lines, named after each of the four main characters on the show, meaning the "Samantha" line will be for the transgendered? Excellent. [WWD, 1st item]
  
• How did we not know that Nina Ricci designer Olivier Theyskens once collaborated with the Smashing Pumpkins? [Vogue UK]
  
• "I collect vintage jewelry and I'm lucky enough to be married to a rich man who can buy it for me." So says Iman. Um, so like, all that modeling you've been doing over the past few decades has been pro bono? How nice. [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• Mark your Chanukadvent calendars! Isaac Mizrahi is appearing on Martha Stewart's show on Dec. 18! We can't wait to see those two queens frost cookies together. [Fashion Week Daily]

• Model Jessica White is to become one of the new faces of Maybelline cosmetics. And she's black! [Sassybella]
• Designer shoe brand Patrick Cox is now officially up for sale. We assume this is because we haven't heard anyone talk about Patrick Cox since the late '90's. [Vogue UK]
• The Proenza Schouler boys are taking the time slot vacated by Marc Jacobs for the Fall/Winter 2008 shows during New York Fashion Week in February. [Fashion Week Daily]
• God, we love a good Anya Hindmarch tongue-in-cheek knock-off. [Sassybella]

• Model Agyness Deyn and designer Henry Holland went as Mr. and Mrs. Beetlejuice for Halloween. They did their own makeup. [Vogue UK]
  
• Jennifer Hudson on Vogue editor-at-large/hideous capelet advocate Andre Leon Talley: "I was like André, you don't have a cell phone? André, you don't e-mail? He's like, 'I don't e-mail honey, I don't do that,' I was like, 'No, no, no, we have to get that together." [Fashion Week Daily]
  
• Jacob "Jacob the Jeweler" Arabov has pleaded guilty to the charges of falsifying records and lying to a federal agent during a drug investigation. We hope all that ice can buy a man a carton of cigarettes in the big house. [WWD, sub req'd]

• Liz Claiborne is thisclose to selling off 4 of its final 9 brands. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Nina Ricci designer/wunderkind Olivier Theyskens is designing socialite Lauren Davis' wedding dress. Says Davis of the design, "[I]t's very bridal." Um. [Fashion Week Daily]
• T-shirt-for-a-cause alert! Marni shirts (ranging in price from $67 to $135) benefiting NGO Mani Tese, which helps underprivileged kids in developing countries. The shirts are portraits of six of the children who would benefit from this funding. Hmm. [Fashion Week Daily]
• What is model Iekeliene Stange's biggest secret in life? "I'm obsessed with roller-skating and having pancake parties!" Ah, models. [Fashion Week Daily]
• We confess: We would buy any magazine with Cate Blanchett on the cover. [Sassybella]

• Glamour editor-in-chief Cindi Leive learned what it really feels like to be "just like us" when she got booted out of Parisian boutique Colette because Victoria Beckham had arrived to shop. And uh, Leive was in the middle of getting changed in the dressing room. Ouch. [Fashion Week Daily]
  
• Memo to models: It does not make us like you any more when you say things like, "But my whole family is tall and pretty!". [Fashion Week Daily]
  
• Olivier Theyskens is going to restage his S/S 2008 Nina Ricci show in interior designer/cracked out Top Design judge Kelly Wearstler's backyard in Beverly Hills. For breast cancer awareness, naturally. [Fashion Week Daily]
  
• Speaking of cancer: Marc Jacobs will be reissuing his skin cancer awareness T-shirts with all our favorite naked (and we assume, lily-white and sunspot-free) tushes from last year — Winona Ryder, Julianne Moore, etc. [WWD, 1st item]

• Marc listed his own outfit on the run-of-show sheet given to all attendees at the Vuitton show. Right down to his Sponge Bob lunchbox. [So can you stop idolizing this freak already? -Moe]Fashion Week Daily]
• French singer Francoise Hardy is probably going to start a clothing line herself. Le why? We would've hoped that the French were more evolved than us, and would have been able to spare themselves from Celebrity Designer Syndrome. [WWD, 2nd item]
• Gucci is partnering with UNICEF, presenting a special, limited-edition bag that will benefit the children's charity. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Apparently redheads have more fun these days. Alert Britney! [Daily Mail]

Worried that Alexander McQueen's show, a tribute to his friend and champion, Isabella Blow, was going to be bathed in bathos? Well it turns out that McQueen, who showed in Paris over the weekend, had the collection of the season, or so sayeth the critics. Those same critics were less kind to Nina Ricci and Chloe - except for Suzy Menkes, who seems to love everyone except sworn enemy Marc Jacobs. Below, the major fashion critics take on McQueen, Ricci, Chloe and John Galliano.

"[Isabella] Blow is now with the angels" "emotional sensitivity of the show brought some beautiful homages" "unique pieces" McQueen's harsh attitude to women has not changed. Models struggled down the runway on teetering platforms. It is an inevitable part of his oeuvre that a woman will appear caged - even if the dress underneath is divine" —Suzy Menkes, International Herald Tribune

"[A] collection of outrageous beauty" "all a vivid reminder of Blow's eccentric, stylish wardrobe." —Hilary Alexander, The Telegraph

"McQueen mustered the clarity to dispense with smoke and mirrors and show his capabilities in cut, drape, and feathered flourish to an audience near enough to inspect every detail" "his romantic fairy-goddess chiffons put him back in the game of current trend" "McQueen honored his mentor by striving to bring out the best in himself" - Sarah Mower, Style.com


Nina Ricci:
"[A] listless collection that didn't suggest a clear plan" "he achieved... wreckage" "dirty colors" "jackets that looked lifted from a mud room" "stringy hair dangling with feathers" "[b]ut other designers have done the same" "isn't very far from what a cool girl is wearing now" —Cathy Horyn, The New York Times

"Nina Ricci has never been so beautifully realized" "a perfume of a collection that hit a modern spot between romantic and sugary" "combining a youthful stride" —Suzy Menkes, International Herald Tribune

"[A] particularly poetic state of dishevelment" "smudged by the murky first light of a city day" "a reassertion of his Belgian identity" "deciding to take the path of underground edginess rather than Parisian chic" "what he's doing for day is the thing to watch" - Sarah Mower, Style.com


John Galliano:
"Mr. Galliano's style is romantic and narrative, typically with an impoverished muse at the center" "for once the models looked happy in their outfits and nobody complained that they were too thin" "looked fresh" "light and friendly" —Cathy Horyn, The New York Times

"Everything in John Galliano's garden was lovely" "However much the designer plants new ideas and changes the landscape (this time it was a carousel and fairground) the effect is always much the same" "this was just Galliano light" "sweet but never cloying" —Suzy Menkes, International Herald Tribune

"Here all was softness, frills, retro bias-cuts and gentle pastels, with the emphasis on roses; printed on chiffon, appliquéd in silk and half-hidden within the folds of a ruffled peplum." —Hilary Alexander, The Telegraph

"[A] gamely dizzy performance of typical Galliano-esque high jinks" "Galliano is motoring on reinterpretations of his classics" "it happens that this is a season in which that looks right" "the narrative wasn't a groundbreaker, merely a device for trotting out Galliano's standard pretty, printed, flouncy dresses" "Galliano is still in the game" —Sarah Mower, Style.com


Chloe:
"But could Mr. Andersson have starved his hungry audience more? The shapes in the collection were so undefined, so indistinct that you had the feeling the same dress was going by again and again" —Cathy Horyn, The New York Times

"It seemed smart to take Chloé back to its roots - while still pushing forward. It has most recently been pitched as a brand for women who want to stay forever innocent on the cusp of maidenhood and maturity" "...this season proved that [designer Paulo Andersson] is not trapped in that vision." —Suzy Menkes, International Herald Tribune

"[R]etro-cuteness cauterized by an intrinsic graphic modernity" "something fresh" "a few rare thoughts about how to make transparency passable on a daily basis" "there was a lot of repetition" "reverted, in a contemporary way, to the old-time Chloé of the early seventies, when Karl Lagerfeld [designed it]" - Sarah Mower, Style.com

• Holy fucking shit: Bruce Weber shot Michael Jackson for the upcoming issue of L'Uomo Vogue. (The combination works because their taste in boys is totally different) It's the first time Jackson has been formally photographed in 16 years, so he makes up for all the lost time with a 20-page spread. All to celebrate the 25th anniversary of "Thriller." This is going to be some freak shit. [WWD, 1st item]
  
• The upcoming exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute to include a "blog bar." Um. [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• In a poll of specially targeted "young adults" regarding their feelings about buying American-made versus foreign-made products, one respondent said, "American Apparel is a good example of a Los Angeles company that doesn't use sweatshop labor." We couldn't find a joke the Onion didn't already use. [WWD, sub req'd]

• The Gucci Group CEO's daughter is 22-years old and is thinking she might want a career in fashion. Quaint! This makes us not like her. So she shows up at a Bottega Veneta show after daddy gets her on the list. Yeah, still don't like her. And what did she wear? Topshop. Wait, maybe we like her! [WWD, 2nd item]
• Someone named Princess Yabshi Pan Rinzinwangmo is making the rounds at the Milan shows decked out in insane outfits. Do we smell a JT Leroy? [WWD, 5th item]
• Nan Kemper's wardrobe to be auctioned off at Christie's for cancer research. [Vogue UK]
• Seriously are we expected to rationalize why we wear black???? [FabSugar]
• Mischa Barton, whom we inexplicably hate, is the face of the fall Iceberg campaign. Look at images (and hate on Mischa) here. [Sassybella]
• Liz Claiborne sells off 4 brands. [Crain's]

• Ooh, awkward! Alice+Olivia designer Stacey Bendet flew Molly Sims out to walk in her show today. Simms told New York magazine that the models at Alice+Olivia are underfed, in response to the magazine's statement that high-end shows have well-fed girls and low-end shows do not. Stacey Bendet = Pissed. Molly Sims = Stupid. [NY Post]
  
• Do not fuck with Anna Sui. In the goody bags at her show yesterday, attendees were gifted with t-shirts which read: "Forever Wanted: Don Cassidy & The Sundance Jin, Reward $21,000. Thou shalt not steal; Exodus 20:15," a reference to Sui's current lawsuit against Forever 21 owners Don and Jin Chang and their hardcore Christianity. [WWD, 1st item]
  
• Now Reese Witherspoon thinks she's a fashion designer too. The maybe-girlfriend of Jake Gyllenhaal is claiming to have played an integral part in designing Olivier Theyskens most recent collection for Nina Ricci. Delusional much? [Sassybella]

• Burberry and Iconix: No longer fighting about prints in raincoats and copyright infringement. Us: No longer carrying about prints in raincoats and copyright infringement. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Damon Dash might have sold his stake in Rocawear, but now he's establishing a partnership with Keds. Which is much, much cooler than seeing Mischa Barton's alien face hovering above a pair of slip-ons. [WWD, 2nd item]
• A hearty welcome to Sarah Cristobel, who joins Harper's Bazaar online as their Senior Web Editor after having been Associate Editor at Style.com. We congratulate her on defecting from the tribe of Naste, and ask her to please brace herself for our wicked ways. [WWD, last item]
• Elizabeth Smith is the new president of Avon, having formally been the head global marketing officer. We'll take some of that Super Shape Anti-Cellulite & Stretch Mark Creme, thanks! [WSJ]
• Maggie Rizer threatens to destroy our street cred, and pride, with her blogging gig for ELLE.com, saying of her new gig, "Nothing about it is really hard. You just have to force yourself to sit down and type." This is the sound of our hearts breaking. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Paging Oedipus? When asked for a comment about his father Ralph Lauren's 40th anniversary, David Lauren said, "Those shoes are too tough to fill!" Well, that is unless you kill your father and have sex with your mother. Just sayin'... [Fashion Week Daily]

[Metropolitan Museum of Art,; New York, May 7. Image via Getty]

New Olivier Theyskens collaborator (Is it just us or is he kind of hot?) and Nina Ricci devotee Reese Witherspoon is not a one-brand woman when it comes to fashion. Merle Ginsberg reports that during a recent lunch/designer bag sale benefiting P.S. Arts (we've no idea either) held at the home of some Bel Air matron, Witherspoon was seen desperately running about looking for something — anything — made by Miu Miu. "Where are the Miu Mius?" Witherspoon is quoted as asking. "No Miu Mius?"

In Reese's defense, she was wearing Nina Ricci. But somehow we knew this broad was a ruthless, whiny label-whore.

Colleen Bell's Hollywood Handbag Frenzy[FashionWeekDaily]