When we happened upon the Mayor's youngest daughter, 27-year-old Georgina Bloomberg, we congratulated her on another formidable equestrian season -- Ms. Bloomberg took home $30,000 last month after winning the Bluegrass Festival Grand Prix in Kentucky. Did she have any time to follow the midterm elections between horse shows?

"I follow it as much as I have to, but I tend to stay out of politics as much as I possibly can," Ms. Bloomberg said. "I think as a politician's daughter, I have more of a sensitive side to it, and I sympathize a little bit more with them as people, not politicians. And it's hard to kind of watch that and see the negative ads, and things like that -- I don't just see the politicians, I see their families, and I see the way it affects their kids or their wives." Sounds reasonable to us!

In the spirit of the cause, multiple notables came prepped with their best doggie tales. American Ballet Theater principal Marcelo Gomes, who took the stage later in the evening with his dachshund, Lua, told us a slightly harrowing one: "I once pulled on my dog's tail really, really hard, and it broke. Well, it fractured," he said, which didn't seem much in keeping with the night's program. How long ago did this happen? "I was very, very young. I didn't know my strength at that moment. But it healed, thank God, and we're all very happy," Mr. Gomes said. "I was crying for about, like, a month or so." Thank goodness he's channeling his strength more productively these days.

Socialite and Interview magazine contributor Fabiola Beracasa currently owns three "death-row" dogs, whom she rescued from being euthanized at the eleventh hour. She promised to tell us a lighthearted anecdote about one in particular, Savannah, but it started out on a rather sobering note: "His temperament is, he's just the nicest dog in the world. And he had been shot in the mouth," she explained, then insisted, "This is a funny story!" And it was, eventually! Apparently Savannah needed to have a metal fixture put into his jaw for a few months to stabilize it while it healed. "So I'm walking down the street with my dog Savannah, who looks like Lady Gaga, because he's got this thing, right?" Ms. Beracasa continued.

"And I run into Terry Richardson, who I know... and he's like, 'Do you mind if I take a picture of your crazy Lady Gaga dog?' and I said sure. And then I'm flipping through French Vogue a few months later, and there's my crazy Lady Gaga dog, in French Vogue!" Ms. Beracasa laughed. "I told you it was worth it. So I run into Terry and I'm like, 'So listen. I've been trying to get into French Vogue my whole life!'"

French Vogue, listen up: it must be noted that Ms. Beracasa looked stunning in a knockout silver-spangled Valentino minidress with a bolero blazer covering her shoulders. "It's like a really strapless dress, and I believe in only showing one body part at once, at a time, you know?" Ms. Beracasa said. "A long sleeve, a short skirt, or vice versa. You know who taught me that? Margherita Missoni's a really good friend of mine, and her grandmother told her that." (Margherita's grandmother is Rosita Missoni, who co-founded the eponymous clothing line in the 1950s with her husband, Vittorio. We'd take her sartorial advice, too.)

The musician and committed animal-rights activist Moby, who emceed the event, insisted he had the best dog story of all. "When I was about ten years old, I was walking by my town dump in Darien, Connecticut... And I heard a little mew. And I looked in a box and in this box were five dead kittens who were about ten days old, and one barely-alive kitten," Moby explained. "So I picked up this barely-alive kitten, eyes closed, just mewing, and I ran home. My mom and I took it to the vet, and the vet said, 'Look, don't get attached to this cat, because he's very young, he's very sick, he won't survive.' And so we took him home, prepared for the cat to die. And our dachshund, George, became the mother to the cat and nursed the cat back to health... Where literally like, the cat would pee and poo all over itself, George would clean it up."

"So George became the cat's mom, and the cat lived to be 19 years old," he finished triumphantly. Awww.

The venue was the New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx, which earlier that day announced it too would be reducing its workforce by 10 percent in response to budget constraints. But whatever! "Who's your favorite celeb fashion crush?" an US Weekly stringer held out a digital recorder at the platinum-haired fashion designer Erin Fetherston, who answered once another guest had finished tripping on the lengthy train of her flowing lace gown. (Answer: Zooey Deschanel, whom Ms. Fetherston calls a "good friend.")

A diamond gleamed from Ms. Fetherston's chest; it was so massive the Daily Transom was tempted to call it "kiwi-sized." We asked if she'd been following the rumors that Vogue editor Anna Wintour might soon be axed.

"I love Anna, I think we're all better off for having her," said Ms. Fetherston, who is certainly herself better off since Ms. Wintour began appearing at all her fashion shows, featuring her dresses in the magazine and nominating her for all manner of prestigious awards following her debut at the 2005 Paris couture shows, thereby catapulting her into the ranks of designers supposedly famous enough to warrant their own Go! International lines at Target by age 27.

This year is different though. Not even deep-discount designer fashion is safe. Shoppers have flocked to Wal-Mart, sending same-store sales at Target down 10 percent last month and Vogue's December ad pages down 22.3 percent. Straight men throughout the Botanical Garden's magestically-lit foyer had huddled into packs to discuss the latest bulge bracket bank layoffs and Obama cabinet appointments, and the fortunes of the companies in which their various private equity firms had invested. "Fourteen out of 15 companies are down," one fortysomething man said glumly, adding that the recession was going to be "much worse than anyone thinks" before a friend tore him away from the conversation. ("Robert, you're talking about the economy when you should be having a good time tonight. Your wife is going to kill you.") On the other hand, a doctor in town from California who seemed to be actively avoiding his companion was eager to talk about what he called "the most unnecessary economic crisis in the history of the world," a disaster he blamed on mortgage bankers who "made Nixonian used car dealers look like Saint Francis of Assisi."

Joy Marks and Leif Bringslimark, a couple in their sixties who divide their time between the Upper East Side and the Hamptons, talked about how the economic crisis had affected the commute-"The driving time has gone from three and a half hours to two!" exclaimed Mr. Bringslimark, who owns a construction company-and the merits of the Barack Obama victory, for whom neither had voted. "The message [of the Obama campaign] was a little scary, taking from the rich to give to the poor," said Ms. Marks. Her companion, however, seemed to have transferred much of his disillusionment to the members of his own tax bracket. "Everyone knew this was coming, but no one thought it would happen this way...[the investment banks] waited until they couldn't hide it anymore," he said. "I'm not sure any president can fix this."

Ms. Fetherston was more vague, and upbeat, when another reporter asked her about business conditions. "It's not easy," she said, smiling sweetly. Then we discussed her haircare regimen: She trims her signature very blunt bangs every few days (every day when she's feeling "obsessive.")

"There is this weird schizophrenia at events like this," mused Margherita Missoni, the model-actress and heir to the Italian fashion house, who was standing nearby waiting patiently for the throng to clear the way toward the ballroom. "We know it's happening, but obviously it hasn't hit us yet. Of course we've been affected, anyone with a business has been affected, but if you were really hurting, if it were really affecting you, you wouldn't be here! I find it a bit ridiculous actually, almost like it's the cool hot topic to talk about at fancy parties is the economy, which seems very decadent."

Ms. Missoni surveyed the scene and shook her head, setting free a few locks that had been loosely tied into her chignon. "Sometimes I wonder, are these people going mad? Am I in the sinking Titanic? I think I'm in the sinking Titanic."

Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's alter ego, Bruno, has been showing up at Paris and Milan fashion weeks. [Vogue UK]

Mary-Kate Olsen and model Jessica Stam partied at Chez Régine in Paris after the shows yesterday. [WWD] 

The fashion rivalry between New York and Paris is the topic of an exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York titled, "Paris/New York: Design/Fashion/Culture/1925-1940." [IHT] 

“Suzy Menkes says it’s my Sarah Palin look,”  Margherita Missoni said of her vintage sparkling Harper’s Bazaar frames. [WWD]

Orchestrated by Mr. Blasberg, who if socialites were Smurfs would totally be called Crafty Socialite, the plan went off without a hitch. When they walked in, the place was quiet. Then everyone yelled, “Surprise!” No toasts, just a few rounds of “for she’s a jolly good fellow,” then the music came blaring back.

“It was a hot party!” said an attendee. “[Model] Lily Donaldson was pole-dancing with Marg.” Other guests included photographer Mario Testino, Proenza Schouler designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, the MisShapes’ Leigh Lezark, former Paris Hilton flame Stavros Niarchos and French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld’s kids Vladimir and Julia. Also, the hardest-working blondes in town: Tinsley Mortimer and Fabiola Beracasa.

The bash had a definite European flavor. “Everyone was smoking,” blabbed the source. “People were smoking weed and there were rumors of mushrooms”—manifest, perhaps, in some strange moves on the dance floor. “Some guests were clearly hallucinating. Or just bad dancers.”

It was perhaps most notable because the "what is she wearing?" line does not apply: to get down and dirty with the present-wrapping (for underprivileged kids), the young ladies who are known as fashion plates donned oversized gray athletic T-shirts with the words "Wrap 2 Rap" scrawled over the surface.

Joining celebrity host LeAnn Rimes were Arden Wohl, Zani Gugelmann, Fabiola Beracasa, Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos, Lydia Fenet and Margherita Missoni. Providing the event’s soundtrack, a D.J. played rap hits in the space while, according to the Upper-East-Side-centric blog, “the women got to see, first hand, who exactly benefits from their seasonal luncheons and balls.”