"My boyfriend was so confused when I was getting dressed tonight," Margherita Missoni, in an attention-grabbing beaded Missoni gown, said at Tuesday's New Yorkers for Children fall gala. "He kept saying that he thought fashion week was over." It was a question no doubt asked by more than one better half as Manhattan's most social ladies found themselves re-primping and re-posing less than a week after the international collections moved across the pond. Lauren Davis showed off her sleeveless Nina Ricci sheath; freshly appointed Dior beauty ambassador Tinsley Mortimer dutifully wore a gold sequined dress by her new employer; and first daughter Barbara Bush sported a silver Oscar de la Renta gown she'd slipped into at her office.

This year's venue, 583 Park Avenue, which many remembered from Oscar de la Renta's show last Monday, received mixed reviews: The basement cocktail area, where Mayor Bloomberg made a pre-dinner cameo, was referred to as the Dungeon more than once. But the dinner, at which LeAnn Rimes played mistress of ceremonies, soon reminded guests why they had come there to support the cause. In her speech, the event's honoree, Laura Baudo Sillerman, put the evening into focus, asking the audience to make room in their budgets for the Back-to-School Packages the beneficiaries of the program depend on. Said seven-year New Yorkers for Children committee member Claire Bernard: "You can see the direct effects of the work this charity does; the evidence is here tonight. Have you met some of the kids? They're truly amazing."

Nearby at Sotheby's, seven-time Tour de France champion and birthday boy Lance Armstrong celebrated another hero in the fight against cancer, Dr. Harold Freeman, the founder and president of the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention. The doctor, honored for 40 years of exemplary service to the Harlem community, was handed his award by Lauren, who is of course celebrating his own 40th anniversary. "Freeman," the designer told an audience that included Julia Koch, Emilia Fanjul Pfeifler, Alexandra Lind Rose, Tory Burch, and Lauren Bush, "has got a soul that's unique." As for his own accomplishments, it wasn't clothes that were on Lauren's mind. "In all my years in business, I'm most proud of my contribution to fight cancer," he said. "I feel like I've made a difference. Lives have been saved. It's the best feeling in the world."