For Derek Lam, at least, Wednesday was the biggest night of this party-packed week in New York: The designer was celebrating his very first store, a sweeping location with upper floors that will soon house his studio and PR office. For the occasion, he tented off the Crosby Street sidewalk and put in palm trees and banquettes. "It's a whole new shopping experience," said Lam, as he walked the likes of Domenico De Sole, Vogue's Anna Wintour, and Maryna Linchuk through the SANAA-designed acrylic pods that turned the big white box into a series of intimate, enveloping spaces.

With Jil Sander next door, Opening Ceremony around the block, and a Mondrian hotel going in across the street, this corner of lower Manhattan—our colleague dubbed it CroHo because it's where Crosby and Howard streets meet—is quickly becoming a new center of cool. However, "cool" might not be quite the right word to describe the paparazzi pandemonium that ensued when Rihanna arrived, wearing Lam's white suit, her own leopard-spot blouse, sunglasses, and highly piled blond streaks. But the pop star shrugged it off: "For Derek, I don't mind."

— Derek Blasberg