Fashion and art will converge in Miami this weekend for Art Basel, but the two were already getting acquainted in L.A. on Monday night. Max and Lubov Azria, together with actress Eva Mendes, hosted a party to unveil a large-scale outdoor installation at the designer's eponymous Melrose Avenue boutique. The new 2,700-square-foot space was recently enveloped in organic swirls and eddies of interwoven branches and twigs, courtesy of North Carolina sculptor Patrick Dougherty. Using tree saplings as construction material, the piece (the artist's first in L.A.) will be on display throughout 2007.

"There's something very exciting about presenting a work of art on a major Los Angeles thoroughfare, as opposed to showing it indoors," said Azria, who welcomed guests such as Jaime King, Christina Milian, and Ali Larter—all wearing looks from the Spring 2007 MaxAzria collection. "It reminds me of being in a fairy tale," said Shiva Rose McDermott, surveying the massive production. She could've just as easily been talking about the new store's interior, with its tree branches and scattered rocks—or the private dinner for 40 that followed in the candlelit garden at the Chateau Marmont.

— Victoria Namkung