Christian Lacroix Returns to Salute Elsa Three of my favorite Paris men - Christian Lacroix, Azzedine Alaïa and Olivier Saillard - burned the midnight oil at Mr. Alaïa's on Sunday night. Apparently they closed shop at 4 a.m., after an altogether enjoyable dinner to celebrate Mr. Lacroix's homage to Elsa Schiaparelli. About 25 guests attended the dinner in Mr. Alaïa's kitchen, including Uma Thurman, Naomi Campbell (straight from the Versace runway), Lea Seydoux, and Diego Della Valle, the Tod's founder, who owns Schiaparelli. Mr. Lacroix, who left fashion a few years ago, was asked to create a small homage collection to help bring attention to Schiaparelli's revival. On Monday evening, there was a presentation of about 18 outfits, along with cocktails. I spotted Mr. Alaïa and Jean Paul Gaultier; bumped into Frédéric Malle, the perfumer, Mr. Saillard, and my friend the illustrator David Downton, who was in heaven, though, technically, we were in the museum Les Arts Décoratifs. Mr. Lacroix's homage included some dramatic coats, a cash-and-carry jacket, a lovely green silk crepe evening, and a number of Schiap-like accessories, including a chimney hat and fur-topped booties that sort of spilled around the ankles. Alas, the items will not be reproduced. Still, it was a pleasure for many people to see Mr. Lacroix again. When I saw him at the museum on Sunday, he told me, "I'm in love with Schiaparelli's work. Without her, I would never have been a couturier. At the end, I was inspired by Schiaparelli. Mr. Lacroix was dressed in a very natty and rather faded pinstriped denim jacket and vest by his friend Ralph Lauren. Like Mr. Saillard and Mr. Alaïa, he is well versed in the émigré fashion story that is Paris, and we spoke for awhile. "It was a fair harbor," he said of Paris in the 1920s and "30s. With the Jewish people, the rich Americans, the Italians fleeing Mussolini, the Spaniards escaping from Franco, it was fashion alchemy. Schiaparelli expects to announce a full-time creative director soon. It sounds as if it will be Marco Zanini of Rochas, but Mr. Della Valle would not comment.