“The last time I was at a Louboutin party, I almost broke my foot,” a woman said as she rode the escalator to the second floor at Bergdorf Goodman last night.

Things didn’t get quite that rowdy at the retailer’s red-themed 20th anniversary fête for the shoe maestro. Except, that is, when the man of the hour made his grand entrance. As guests tried to get a photo or an autograph of Louboutin—not easy, what with his pack of bodyguards—even industry insiders admitted that meeting the designer is a thrill. “In May, I had lunch with him in Budapest. I know it sounds name drop-y, but I’m from the Midwest, so it was pretty exciting,” said Paper magazine’s Mickey Boardman.

Bergdorf’s Linda Fargo was on the same page—she decked herself out in confetti for the occasion. Just how did she manage to attach it to her skin? “I used lots of fake eyelash glue,” she told Style.com. “Originally, I went to the store to get those gold star stickers, like the ones they used to put on your papers in school when you did well, and they looked at me like I was crazy!”

—Kristin Studeman