At the Orangerie at Versailles, following a Christian Dior Haute Couture show full of neo-New Looks in honor of the house's anniversary, John Galliano threw a party with a Spanish theme. And why not? He's the master of multi-referencing, after all. (On a sadder note, the recent death of his closest collaborator, Steven Robinson, may have made him yearn for the comforts of his Gibraltar home.) If the Sun King had seen the dozen-plus tents, the paella pan bigger than most Manhattan living rooms, the sardines, the legs of Serrano ham, the fire jugglers, and the flamenco dancers—all set up on his fussy orchard lawn—it would've meant cloudy days for a year. (Then again, given the unending rain Paris has endured this summer, perhaps that's exactly what happened.)

Luminosity came courtesy of the many hundreds of guests. Almost all of the show's megawatt supermodels—including Naomi, Shalom, Amber, and Angela—stuck around. Linda Evangelista retained her fire-engine-red bob and Jessica Stam kept her soot-eyed show makeup in place, but the rest of the girls toned it down a bit, changing into more subdued Dior prêt-à-porter. Joining them were Charlize Theron, a newly cropped Tilda Swinton, Ellen von Unwerth, Giles Deacon, Dior Homme's Kris Van Assche, and Dita Von Teese. The latter made a memorable appearance on the dance floor, taking spins with a gang of club kids who arrived just in time for DJ Jeremy Healy's ear-splitting house set around midnight. But perhaps the most openly enthusiastic guests were the members of the Loyola Boys' Choir, a group of 11 youngsters from a Catholic prep school in Essex, England, that Galliano hired to perform at the show. Agog at the curtain of fountain water on which the show was rescreened, they scooted around like baby ducks well past their bedtimes. For them, as well as for everyone else, this kind of party doesn't happen every night.

— Alexandra Marshall