Shelter From the Storm - NYTimes.com This hasn't been an easy week for anyone in New York, but not even a snowstorm kept a banquet area in the Mandarin Oriental from getting packed to the rafters with fashionistas Wednesday night. The reason they showed up in their Lanvin and Balenciaga was for Phoenix House's annual gala, the Fashion Award Dinner, where this year's honorees included the designer Diane von Furstenberg, Jim Gold (president and chief executive of Bergdorf Goodman) and Andrew Rosen (the founder of Theory). And a night after Barack Obama won re-election, this group of mostly lefties was pretty boisterous, even if their high heels had been nearly ruined on the way to Columbus Circle. "I'm so happy that lying, mendacious phony got trounced," said Tina Brown, the editor in chief of The Daily Beast, who was there to introduce Ms. von Furstenberg, and made it clear whom she had supported the day before. There was something very gratifying about that. Now we can finally get on with it, said Linda Fargo, the fashion director of Bergdorf Goodman, who declined to discuss which candidate she had voted for, but who professed to be glad the long slog of the election was at least over with. Nearby, a handful of photographers snapped away as attendees like Tory Burch, Francisco Costa and Glenda Bailey sauntered by, offering their congratulations to Ms. von Furstenberg. "Hello Glenda," Ms. von Furstenberg said. "Congratulations!" boomed Ms. Bailey, the editor of Harper's Bazaar. You so deserve this. Soon after, a voice came over the speakers asking guests to take their seats, even though the emcee, Alexandra Wentworth, was missing in action. "Ali is lost somewhere in New York so you're stuck with me," said Rose Marie Bravo, the vice chairman of Burberry, adding that the evening's festivities had been meant to take place at Chelsea Piers, which of course was flooded during Hurricane Sandy, sending organizers scrambling. Ms. Bravo then introduced the evening's first speaker, Howard Meitiner, the chief executive of Phoenix House. As Mr. Meitiner told it, organizers had certainly considered cancelling the festivities, but then "the substance abuse crisis doesn't take a day off, and so neither will we." Around 8:15, Ms. Wentworth swept in wearing an Olivier Theyskens for Theory jacket that she had not even had time to cut the tags out of. She also couldn't for the life of her remember how to pronounce the designer's name, when she took to the podium, even though Mr. Theyskens was there to introduce Mr. Rosen. "You'd think as his muse I'd be able to remember," she said, inserting an expletive somewhere in there. Oh well, she said. I'll be your emcee for the remaining 32.5 percent of the evening. It was a little off-color, but it was nothing compared to the explanation Ms. von Furstenberg later gave for how she'd gotten to know Phoenix House, and its legendary founder, Mitch Rosenthal. As Ms. von Furstenberg told to the audience, she met him at a party for Bella Abzug in the 1970s, "And I thought, 'Hmmm. he's hot.' I thought he was Chris Sarandon, who'd been in a movie called 'Dog Day Afternoon.'  They got to know each other ("I'll spare you some details," Ms. von Furstenberg said, though she wanted it known she at least learned his real identity) and became as impressed by what he was doing professionally as what he looked like. At the time, there was no Betty Ford. There was no this. There was no that," Ms. von Furstenberg said. Drugs was something that you knew very little about and if you were an addict there was a lot of shame about it. And this young, smashing, good-looking man who looked like Chris Sarandon created this incredible place where shame was not an issue. Andrew Rosen's toast was a little more somber. He told of losing a marriage, and nearly, a child to the disease of addiction. All in all, the evening -- which included an auction of pricey baubles from Tiffany's -- raised nearly a million dollars for the organization, as of an unofficial tally this morning.