Daryl Kerrigan, Phi's Andreas Melbostad, and Devi Kroell, among other New York designers, turned up at Club Monaco's Prince Street store last night to fête Style.com's Laird Borrelli-Persson and her latest book, The Cocktail Dress. Inevitably, talk turned to L.B.D.s. The trio that opened Nicolas Ghesquière's Fall 2008 Balenciaga collection received a shout-out from this reporter, while the knockout that Catherine Deneuve wore in The Hunger scored high marks from stylist Keegan Singh. But, no surprise, Audrey Hepburn's Breakfast at Tiffany's Givenchy, which appears on the cover of Borrelli-Persson's new tome, was the hands-down winner in the frock stakes. "It's a little black dress, so it's versatile; it's fitted, so it has a shape. There's that flounce, and of course, it helps that it's Audrey wearing it," riffed Peter Som. "The secret to a successful cocktail dress," he added, is "asking yourself, 'Do I look good holding a martini with this?' " Yigal Azrouël, for his part, said, "Keep it simple. You don't want to look like you're trying too hard." The author herself, who wore Club Monaco's fitted black Hillary dress, rattled off a few of her own requirements: "It has to be short, sexy, and transitional, meaning it's got to work for both day and night." And what about accessories? According to Borrelli-Persson, "a sparkling personality is all you need."

— Nicole Phelps