As had been widely publicized, street hawkers selling real Louis Vuitton bags were stationed outside the Brooklyn Museum Thursday night, there to greet the likes of Linda Evangelista and Terence Koh at the © Murakami opening party. Inside, art-cum-accessory lovers shopped in the LV pop-up store, set in the gallery space alongside the Japanese artist's super-saturated, subversive prints. Is a handbag art? "People need to get over their categories and their labels and their defining of things," declared Marc Jacobs, no stranger to the debate. "The idea that people should stay in their little world and not venture out of it is just not the way I think, and it's certainly not the way Kanye or Takashi thinks." "Kanye" is Kanye West, of course, who performed a high-octane set for the crowd. Guest of honor Takashi Murakami, who gamely signed his Poku placemats after dinner, gleamed with satisfaction after the show. "It's amazing," he said of West's energy. "It's all sweaty."

—Alison Baenen