Donatella Versace Launch Party

Donatella Versace Launch Party

Donatella and co. commandeered Barneys' third floor on Tuesday night for the exclusive launch of the revitalized Versace menswear collection. ″Every guy wants a moiré suit,″ the department store's creative director, Simon Doonan, said in his best salesman voice. ″He just may not have realized it yet.″ The evening drew an eclectic mix of fans—from Gossip Girl's Leighton Meester, who proclaimed that ″Donatella is, like, kind of the shit,″ to Woody Allen, who didn't say anything about moiré suits but did profess a fondness for Versace sweaters. The lady of the hour, meanwhile, looked the part in a skintight dress and vertigo-inducing stilettos. ″Its like she's just sort of floating around,″ observed Alan Cumming, as he watched her gamely pose for photographers. ″I think that's the smartest way to handle these things. And it's always best to have a martini beforehand.″

Fashion's former party girl has famously cleaned up her act, of course. At the intimate dinner that followed at the Soho apartment of Barneys CEO Howard Socol and his wife, Sharon, Donatella took the elevator back down to the street for a smoke break rather than risk offending the nicotine-averse. Still, the Versace touch was evident in the ladlefuls of caviar and a star-truffled guest list—handpicked by the Italian designer herself—that included Mark Ronson, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Francesco Clemente, Versace menswear creative consultant Alexandre Plokhov, and Patti LaBelle.

″I love Patti LaBelle. I mean, she's iconic,″ said Versace in her smoky baritone. ″I wish she'd start singing.″ LaBelle, however, had another agenda. ″I wasn't planning to perform. I just planned to watch all the beautiful men.″ One Versace hunk not in attendance was the face of the current menswear campaign, Patrick Dempsey. When asked what made Dempsey the right man for the job, Mario Testino, who shot the campaign, broke into a frown. ″He's just really good-looking,″ he said. ″It's so annoying.″