Ensconced at her reserve table with Universal execs, Kelly Rowland literally shimmered in a light-reflecting Rubin Singer dress at Pat Field's disco party at 230 Fifth.

Some dance-club inclined friends of ours really like your new single, "Commander", we told the singer by way of an icebreaker.

Iconic costume designer Pat Field hosted a disco-tacular swim party last night in conjunction with the release of "Sex and the City 2″. Or was it a swimstastic disco? Either way, Field was the belle of a rooftop party at 230 Fifth Avenue for 1500 guests featuring flowing Skyy vodka, a swimwear fashion show and the best people-watching this side of fashion week. Mannequins in glittery body-exposing suits and MCM bags were set up in a side stage next to life size (we think) faux tigers and (real) palm trees.

Belvedere Vodka's party for its new Pink Grapefruit flavor took place in the Meatpacking district last night, where three hours of free vodka (including frozen shots) and pink-clad rollerskating models put people in a breezy mood.

Designer Matthew Williamson quipped, "I tried [the grapefruit vodka] last night for the first time. I had one too many, I think." Chelsea Handler, in town for a weekend gig at Radio City, held court on the red carpet with a drink in hand. "I have like four a day," she joked.

While making the party rounds last night, we stopped by the opening of jeweler David Yurman's new flagship boutique on Madison Avenue which was packed with socialites, caviar wishes and champagne dreams.

On the third floor of the townhouse, we bumped into actress Melissa George, who lit up 'Grey's Anatomy' last year and will soon appear, with Mandy Moore, in the romantic comedy "Swinging with the Finkels."

Missed last night's Zac Posen party? Footage of it may show up on MTV soon.

MTV's The City's cameras were in full force at Zac Posen's Target 24-hour party at the New Yorker, where they followed Elle's Joe Zee and Olivia Palermo. At one point, Palermo and Posen sprinted off suddenly, followed by the amusing sight of full grown men carrying heavy gear scattering after them. Palermo, wielding an Elle.com microphone, interviewed the designer -- a scene also filmed for the show. The whole "TV show taping fashionable media girls as they create content" could tempt some to reach for a Marshall McLuhan reference.

One might be forgiven for not knowing that March 8 was International Women's Day. First celebrated in 1911, IWD is a national holiday, on par with Mother's Day, in several countries across the world.

Though it has a lower-profile in the United States, designer Diane von Furstenberg has celebrated the date for several years. On Monday evening, she hosted singer Estelle and Brazilian artist Panmela Castro-Anarkia in collaboration with Vital Voices, a women's group founded by then-First Lady Hillary Clinton that aims to empower disenfranchised women.

Zac Posen's new exclusive collection for Saks Fifth Avenue, Z Spoke, was feted last night with the usual fashion party trappings: champagne, finger food, models and music. Posen, who's recently been dogged by questions of his company's financial health, was in good spirits, charming his models, gathering socialites into embraces for photos, even indulging a few fans with polite chatter.

While making our fashion party rounds on Saturday night, Speakeasy bumped into "Mad Men" and "Community" star Alison Brie, who was parlaying her four-day break from shooting "Community" into a visit to New York's runway front rows. At the Paper magazine shindig celebrating the new Camper flagship store on Madison Avenue, ebullient partiers jostled for drinks while navigating around an inordinately large table in the center of the room. Sean Lennon and Charlotte Kemp Muhl spun music in a corner (they're fond of Prince).

Brie stood by the front glass doors, and discussed juggling comedic and dramatic roles. "There's so many moments on 'Community' which are dramatic, especially with my character," Brie said. "Similarly, I think that Trudy and Pete provide a lot of the comic relief on 'Mad Men'."

Hermès inaugurated its first stand-alone menswear store last night with a celebrity-packed cocktail party, followed by a lavish private party at the Park Avenue Armory. The 690 Madison Avenue space stands directly across the street from the flagship store. It was formerly a Luca Luca store.

Plans for the store didn't falter even as the luxury sector took a pummeling. "We plan out for many years ahead," said Robert B. Chavez, Hermès president and CEO. "We don't change our strategy just for one or two years. We know the potential for this type of category is really great."

So officially, New York fashion week starts next Thursday, Feb. 11. But for those in the know, the ramp up to the Tents began this week with H&M's party for Sonia Rykiel's capsule collection at Bobo.

The party had all the trappings and buzz of a runway season event: off-duty runway models (check), CW actors (Leighton Meester, Kelly Rutherford, check), hours of open bar (check) and a DJ who has graced Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Victoria's Secret (Chanel Iman, check).

Jennifer Lopez's trademark dewy skin earned her the nickname "J.Glow" some years back. Now the man responsible for Lopez's fresh-faced beauty has published a book with makeup tips for all women. Scott Barnes' "About Face" features Lopez on the cover and at the book launch party at the Hotel Gansevoort's Provocateur last night, the pair gushed about their longtime friendship, which dates to Lopez's second video."We're not just people who work together, we're best friends. It's a deeper relationship than that," Lopez said.

The pedigree of a truly successful party doesn't appear until the next morning. Just how brightly does that sun shine? Do you spurn sunlight and ache for sleep like a newborn bat? More than a few New Yorkers are likely in this predicament on the morning following the Chandelier Creative and Commonwealth Utilities' Christmas extravaganza party.

The boutique design firm and menswear line, both headed by creative director Richard Christiansen, sent out over 700 16-inch wide red invitations (some 300 were returned by the postal service) promising Santas, hot dogs and Champagne.

It takes a special kind of moxie to turn heads at a fashion party that includes Russell Simmons, pop singer Cassie, Amanda Lepore, Amber Valletta, and fashion designers Marc Jacobs, Olivier Theyskens, Phillip Lim, and Erin Fetherston. But at last night's NARS 15×15 party, in honor of the 15th anniversary of Francois Nars' signature cosmetics line, people openly gawked, swooned and, in the Rachel Zoe sense of the word, died over party host Daphne Guinness.

It was the end of her long night as host of Louis Vuitton's Saks Fifth Avenue launch party in midtown, but Maggie Gyllenhaal lit up when asked about her new film, "Crazy Heart."

"I think it's my favorite film I've made," Gyllenhaal said of "Crazy Heart," a character portrait that stars Jeff Bridges as washed-up country singer Bad Blake. After early Oscar buzz, the film is being rushed into theaters in December to qualify for awards season.

At the Swarovski-hosted fete in honor "Gossip Girl" costume designer Eric Daman at Gramercy Park Hotel's rooftop lounge, even the drinks were sparkly. Pink raspberry champagne cocktails were served on trays covered in loose colored stones, while music was piped in.

"Gossip Girl" star Leighton Meester's vocals sang out twice, in Cobra Starship's "Good Girls Go Bad" and her solo song, "Somebody to Love." A clip of the "Somebody to Love" video aired during last week's episode, showing an aggressively sexy Meester wearing Proenza Schouler's show-closing Spring 2009 jumpsuit in the back of a limo. Were the uber-sexy clothes a way to metaphorically shed her good-girl onscreen persona? "It's just a wonderful expression of who I am," Meester said. "It's very over-the-top sexy, over-the-top fashion -- with music you can do that."

Parties during fashion week are a dime a dozen. Even with celebrity sightings, there's a certain sameness to parties: Sip Champagne (usually Veuve Clicquot), totter about the room in irresponsible heels, then gossip about post-runway impressions while discreetly eyeing the flashy ensembles in the room.

Wednesday night's Gilt Groupe, Thrillist and Refinery29 party held at downtown's Santos Party House blew into the party circuit like a breath of fresh air. Billed as a non-fashion fashion week party, the event was in honor of Gilt Fuse, Gilt's new online sample site that features younger and more affordable looks than the original Gilt Groupe.

Out Magazine hosted current fashion obsession Lady Gaga Tuesday night. Diehard fans and those unable to score a ticket to Monday's Marc Jacobs after-party (where she performed for 10 minutes) flocked to neo-cabaret The Box in the hopes of a repeat performance.

Well before the 8 p.m. party start, a line snaked half-way down the block as taxis emptied boys in suits and girls in spangles onto Chrystie Street. Although the invitation said nothing about Lady Gaga or a performance by her, anticipation ran high following the magazine's September Gaga cover story.

Saturday's evening party roster was packed for those who had access. For stars like Lindsay Lohan and Jared Leto, the first stop of the night was Stacy Bendet's Alice & Olivia Spring 2010 party/presentation in the Meatpacking District. Guests such as "Gossip Girl" stars Kelly Rutherford and Jessica Szohr, Nicky Hilton and socialite Tinsley Mortimer packed into the industrial space. At one end of the space, tableaus of models lingered in the new collection, while a stage dominated the center -- French girl band the Plastiscines performed for the crowd. A front wall was open to the street, allowing guests to sip drinks just above the sidewalk. Guests shot phone images of the models, but really, the event provided a chance to mingle, dance and drink after a long day of rushing to runway shows. The overall (and intended) effect was of the iconic insider downtown New York party that is catnip to film and TV producers.

With little more than a week to go before their Spring 2010 show, Proenza Schouler's Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez looked relatively calm as they took interviews before the premiere of Loic Prigent's documentary "The Day Before." (The four-part Sundance series takes viewers behind the scenes at Fendi, Jean Paul Gaultier, Sonia Rykiel and Proenza Schouler.)

After cocktails at private club Norwood, a small group of journalists and industry insiders watched excerpts of the Proenza Schouler and Sonia Rykiel episodes. The audience chuckled in recognition and sighed in sympathy as Proenza's team tried to manage oncoming fashion disasters such as painting Italian handcrafted brown belts and bags black.