—Tommy Ton

There had been much anticipation leading up to the bal masqué that Paris Vogue hosted to celebrate its 90th anniversary. Did it live up to the hype? “This is the best party I have been to in my eight years in Paris,” Rick Owens said. “French Vogue doesn’t have very many limits, and they still have the potential to be scandalous. You gotta love that unconventional attitude. That’s Carine.”

That it was. Among a crowd that included Miuccia Prada, Riccardo Tisci, Hedi Slimane, Lapo Elkann, Lenny Kravitz, and just about everyone else who could beg, borrow, or steal a ticket, the editrix herself was holding court, in a transparent leopard-print Givenchy number. The theme of the party, held in the Pozzo di Borgo, was disguise, and the fashion crowd clearly relished the assignment. There were wild, feathered headgear (on Anna Dello Russo, naturally), sequins, and full-body regalia. “It’s just great that people really played the game,” Roitfeld said. “You can’t recognize a lot of them because of their masks. I think that’s really exciting.” (She wasn’t the only one excited—a costume party is a great place to live out your longtime fantasies. “I started making this yesterday,” Jean Paul Gaultier said of his gold mask splayed with stick-straight black feathers. “I’ve always dreamed of having long, black hair—et voilà, now I have it.”)

As the night rolled on, Gisele appeared in a lacy half-mask by Philip Treacy. “I had nothing to wear, and now I look like I have one eye, but that’s OK,” the supermodel laughed on her way to the dance floor. Nothing to wear? That wasn’t a problem for the hostess, who had already planned an outfit change for midnight—a runway look by Peter Dundas for Emilio Pucci. “It’s all lace, décolleté, and transparencies, with high slits,” Dundas said. “It’s beautiful and it pushes the limits—like Carine.”

—Tina Isaac