Le tout Paris—and what seemed like half of New York—came out to celebrate Sonia Rykiel's 40th year in fashion on Wednesday night. Over 2,000 guests crammed into a specially constructed venue in the Domaine National de Saint-Cloud to pay tribute to the grande séductrice who, as pal Jean Paul Gaultier put it, "revolutionized the way bourgeois women dress." The night featured a 600-person sit-down dinner, Rykiel's own Spring fashion show (complete with a conga line of dancing models), and a surprise runway homage by 30 of her designer peers. Asked what he and his hostess had in common, Christian Lacroix joked, "Age!" before reminiscing on their long friendship: "To me, Sonia is La Femme." Zoë Kravitz found herself dancing in the aisles even before the DJ took over. Her assessment of the evening's festivities was more plainly American: "Awesome."

— Tina Isaac