"We're here for Julian Schnabel and Jeff Koons, the two great artists of our times," declared Michael Chow to a crowd that included Gena Rowlands, Ziyi Zhang, and Mickey Rourke at Thursday night's Gucci-sponsored Tribeca Ball fundraiser for the New York Academy of Art. Maybe so, but Chow's wife, Eva, was more interested in future art stars than the evening's co-chairs. Admiring the work of the Academy's graduating class, she said, "I have a feeling I'm going to be buying quite a few of these." The school's devotion to figurative art—not to mention the live portrait session with two nude models during cocktail hour—had other guests pondering the body. "The human figure is the most intriguing thing," said Rachel Zoe. "It is the beginning and end of almost every art form, especially fashion."

At the Bowery Hotel, the equally arty Jeffrey Deitch, Cindy Sherman, and Lisa Anastos celebrated the 33rd anniversary of Creative Time, a nonprofit organization that funds video projects for the likes of Doug Aitken and Takashi Murakami. David Byrne, who co-hosted the event with Debbie Harry, hinted that he may soon join the company's impressive roster of collaborators. "I think we're going to do something for the fall," he said while doling out lotto-sized balls to guests who wanted to take part in the silent auction. "But for right now I'm giving people blue balls."

Uptown, Helena Christensen and Fabiola Beracasa hosted an in-store soirée for Alessandro Dell'Acqua. Kate Bosworth was among the slender types who squeezed into the Italian designer's sliver of a Madison Avenue boutique. Earlier that afternoon, the house of Valentino put on a fashion show and luncheon at Cipriani on 42nd Street to benefit the New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The ladies-who-lunch crowd—"or don't lunch," as attendee Melania Trump joked—included Julia Koch, Samantha Boardman Rosen, and Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos, among hundreds of others. From his front-row seat at a table near the end of the runway, the company's PR man, Carlos Souza, gave shout-outs to catwalkers Isabeli Fontana and Yasmin Brunet, a newcomer from his native Brazil.

Meanwhile at Garrard in London, where the theme was "Colour and Cocktails," partygoers including the actor James Purefoy, burlesque star Immodesty Blaize, and Jacobi Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe (brother of Prince William's reported new girlfriend, Isabella) indulged in green vodka cocktails, wobbly pink jellies, and pineapple sweeties to match the citrines, rubies, and yellow diamonds in the Tom Bartlett-and-Jade Jagger-designed display cases. The star of the show was a 40-carat, $14.8 million Burmese ruby guarded by a beefcake of a man called Angus. Even Matthew Mellon, the oil and banking heir, paused to gape.

The previous evening, Pratt honored Narciso Rodriguez with its Fashion Icon Award. "It's been a big week," said the designer and Parsons grad, who had announced his new partnership with Liz Claiborne Inc. on Monday. In the crowd at the Gramercy Park Hotel's Rose Bar were Rodriguez fans like Claire Danes and Simon Doonan. "Narciso is a designer with a capital D," said the Barneys creative director. "He's a fashion icon to me, but for the students at Pratt, he's the best kind of role model."