British Invasion, Part 1
DJ Paul Sevigny was blaring Soho’s 1991 hit “Hippychick” at Asprey’s grand reopening on Madison Avenue Thursday night. Of course, there was barely a bohemian—nouveau or otherwise—to be seen in the elegant new two-story space, filled as it was with jewelry cases of scintillating baubles and the ladies who adore them. Taking in a well-heeled crowd that included Plum Sykes, Lauren duPont, Jacquetta Wheeler, and Jennifer Creel—doing her part for the cause by wearing a black Asprey drop-waist dress—the company’s creative director, Hakan Rosenius, proclaimed, “I love New York.”

British Invasion, Part 2
Rosenius' fellow Londoner Stella McCartney was the guest of honor nearby at Bergdorf Goodman. Mingling in the seventh-floor restaurant, BG, were Elettra Rossellini Wiedemann, Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, Petra Nemcova, and the evening’s co-hosts, Helena Christensen, Jessica Seinfeld, and Liv Tyler, whose husband’s band, Arckid, performed a special set. “It was a personal request from Stella,” explained Royston Langdon of their first in-store show. “I could never say no to Stella—and I wouldn’t want to!” Dressed in a black dress of her own design accessorized with a diamond panther ring, McCartney said that what she enjoyed most about this trip to New York was meeting her clients at the trunk show. “I’m a sympathetic female designer,” she said. “At the end of the day, it’s important that you feel comfortable and confident in your clothes.”

Enough With the Brits: A French Affair
Across Fifth Avenue at Louis Vuitton, Scarlett Johansson and a party for her pet charity, Oxfam America, attracted hordes of paparazzi and pedestrian rubberneckers. Marc Jacobs, who was rumored to be attending, didn’t show, but there was plenty of other camera bait in the form of Serena Williams, Mya, and Michael Stipe. “Scarlett can talk a blue streak about all of her causes,” said the REM frontman, who has known the actress for seven years. And indeed she did. “When you lend your name to an organization, you have to do a background check first,” said The Nanny Diaries star. “Oxfam is effective in disaster situations, which is what I became interested in after the tsunami, so it’s a good match.” So, it seems, are Louis Vuitton and Johansson, who’ve teamed up for a second ad campaign. But will she wear the luxe French label to the Met Gala this Monday? Or will she spread the love? Hint: She’s going with her pal Stella McCartney.

But That's Not All…
Elsewhere that night, the accessories-obsessed Sarah Jessica Parker turned up at a Fred Leighton cocktail party for its exhibition of evening bags and vanities, “Night & Day.” And downtown at the Gramercy Hotel’s Rose Bar, Diane von Furstenberg and Richard Lambertson toasted Robert Lee Morris, who will receive the CFDA’s inaugural Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award next month.

Earlier in the day, meanwhile, the promise of a new pair of Chanel flats lured Marjorie Gubelmann Raein, Margherita Missoni, Cristina Greeven Cuomo, and others to a luncheon at La Grenouille. “I can’t wait, I’m going to look,” said Celerie Kemble, upon taking her seat and spying one of the perfectly packaged goody bags. Stylist Tina Chai was just as excited about her black silk ballerina shoes with matching ribbon bows at the toe. “These are so me!” she exclaimed, and yelled over to “Greta”—the fashion house’s Gretchen Gunlocke Fenton—to thank her. “Have you heard that story?” Chai asked. “When Gretchen first met Karl, he said, ‘You are Greta now.’”