>> Before the winner is announced Nov. 17, a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund nomination will get you a piece of the twenty-page spread with Caroline Trentini in the November 2008 issue of Vogue, plus an invite to last night's celebratory cocktail party, hosted by Anna Wintour, of course.

But it's not all fun and games — the party doubled as part of the judgment process.  Each of the ten nominees were assigned a different species of butterfly, a L'Oreal eye-color palette, and an evocative word as inspiration for the custom creation they made for their assigned dates — sounds a little Project Runway, no?  Or maybe that's where Project Runway got the idea . . .

Alexander Wang brought Zoe Kravitz in a "barely-there dress," the Vena Cava girls dressed Raquel Zimmermann in a gown, Jason Wu paired Leighton Meester with a ladylike frock, Richard Chai was on a double date with Coco Rocha and Jamie Johnson, Swaim and Christina Hutson created an Obedient Daughters look for Chiara Clemente, and Alejandro Ingelmo put Lake Bell in some serious gladiators.

The designers presented their dates and creations to the judges, and then enjoyed the party.  Alejandro Ingelmo was even caught taking down Coco Rocha's number . . .
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