If you took all the nervous anticipation and the "they like me, they really like me" glee of freshman pledge night and dropped it in a Soho triplex in the sky, then you'd have something akin to the CFDA's new-members cocktail party at Elie and Rory Tahari's pad on Tuesday night. "I hear there's going to be hazing later," joked Philip Crangi, who, although a 2007 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund runner-up, was required to wear a boutonniere along with the rest of the matriculating class. "You can't imagine what I had to do to get my membership. There was dancing involved," deadpanned jewelry designer Loree Rodkin, "and a swimsuit competition." Rodkin's boutonniere had fallen off, but on prominent display was her jewel-encrusted whale penis bone necklace (hey, just trying to be accurate in our descriptions).

Rory Tahari, who later slipped out to go to the Madonna concert, showed guests around her spacious digs, which previously belonged to Rupert Murdoch. "That's Elie's yoga room," she told Arnold Scaasi, pointing to a skybox on the second-floor terrace (yes, there were two terraces). There were also two children, both under the age of ten, but Rory said she wasn't one of those uptight moms who won't let the kids out of the playroom. "You can have nice things and have a young family," she insisted. "Plus, they know not to touch the Cy Twombly."

— Evelyn Crowley