Cool Welcome to Paris

Milla Jovovich, Alexander Wang, and Anouck Lepère   more photos ›

At an intimate dinner Sunday night celebrating his line's debut at Colette—Paris' must-shop stop—and his collaboration with Australian Wool Innovation, Alexander Wang set the record straight on opting out of his usual blowout after-party during the New York collections. "Everyone blamed the economy and the recession, but we decided a long time ago we wanted to do something more intimate," he explained. "Besides, it'd be hard to top last season." (Indeed: How do you outdo a sweaty basement dance bash with a live Foxy Brown concert?)

Thus, a fête of a different sort transpired in Paris. Guests like Anouck Lepère, Dasha Zhukova, and Lou Doillon settled into a handful of tables for a cozy dinner at newcomer La Fidélité (usually closed on Sundays; the restaurant made an exception). Several of the slender ladies in attendance—Milla Jovovich, Lily Donaldson, Natasha Poly, Raquel Zimmermann, and Lara Stone among them—opted to squeeze into a single booth. "And probably shared one dish amongst all of them," one diner suggested.

Laid-back as the evening was, Wang still had something to celebrate: the continuation of the Wang empire in new markets. "I knew this would be the season," said Sarah Lerfel from Colette, who co-hosted the festivities with Julia Restoin-Roitfeld and Vanessa Traina. "The [Spring] shoes and the bags were fantastic. I think what he does is so modern, so fun."