At the Monday-night party celebrating the debut of his stunning new menswear emporium in Milan, Tom Ford was temporarily holding court on the third floor. The crush of admirers was accordingly intense, taxing the air-conditioning to the nth degree, and consequently not a good moment for the Milanese lady whose plus one was a Chinese shar-pei to head for the stairs. Big crowd, big dog, big heat…the only thing missing was the SPCA. Maybe her date cut out at the last minute and she didn't want to show up alone. Everyone else came with somebody: Donatella Versace with daughter Allegra Versace Beck, Anna Wintour with Miuccia Prada, Dolce with Gabbana. While the world schvitzed, Tom was his unflappably cool self. Does he ever tire of looking perfect? Confronted by Sean Combs' latest protégé, Ryan Leslie, he mused, "Maybe I should try a funky look." And the place to try it would definitely have been Tom's disco inferno later that night. He bathed an eighteenth-century villa in the eerie violet light for which he's often betrayed a fondness. Memories of discos past? The DJ was doing his best to evoke them for the rave-y mob.

At more or less the same time, Frida Giannini was hosting her own disco bash to mark the launch of the house's fragrance for men, Gucci by Gucci Pour Homme. But before the doors of its show space on Piazza Oberdan were thrown open to the masses, there was a dinner in the garden. Campaign face James Franco looked as rapt as everyone else while the scent's commercial was screened. Maybe he was seeing himself through Frida's eyes. After all, she was insisting she picked him because she couldn't find "a rock star with such a beautiful face" right now.

— Tim Blanks