Shirt Subjects: Socialites, Sedaris Dress Down for Vogue-Gap Shindig

Is it just us, or are the names of designer labels getting weirder and weirder?

Five of ’em—3.1 Phillip Lim, Band of Outsiders, Michael Bastian, threeASFOUR and Philip Crangi—were feted by those unlikely bedfellows Vogue and the Gap over cocktails and risotto cakes in a whitewashed loft space off Rockefeller Center on Monday, April 14. CFDA/Vogue Fashion Finalists all, they’d each designed one or more white shirts for the chain, the second year of such a collaboration.

Socialites Byrdie Bell and Olivia Chantecaille, actresses Virginia Madsen and Lake Bell, and designers Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig were all on the scene. So was Amy Sedaris, the comedienne, a friend of the tattooed Mr. Crangi’s, wearing a black hoop skirt. “I just like seeing how everyone’s dressed, and their shoes,” she said, “And I like the guys bringing around the food. You know, they’re models.” How often does Ms. Sedaris attend fashion events? “Never!” she said, though she’ll certainly pop into the Gap “if I need something simple or generic or, you know, one size fits most.”

The store’s newly installed design chief Patrick Robinson—hubby of towering Vogue market editor Virginia Smith, incidentally, and subject of a sprawling profile and photo shoot in the magazine’s May 2008 issue—was bouncing around the room in a black T-shirt and jeans. “This went into stores last week,” he said, motioning toward mannequins dressed in his summer collection. “It’s doing amazing.”

No one is more excited about his post than his 5-year-old son, Wyeth, Mr. Robinson added. “He’s always like, ‘Dad, look, it’s Gap. Show me your shirt, is it Gap?’ He’s really cute.” But dressing the little one does pose its challenges. “My son only wears red. Whenever we see something red, we have to buy it.”