Cracking the dress code

Good parties are like buses: they tend to come in threes. But even with a chauffeur at their disposal, London celebrities still had a few difficulties navigating the party circuit - and for once, the traffic wasn't the only thing to blame.

With the launch party for Harrod's new beauty department specifying a white dress code, the Harper's and Queen Little Black Dress party naturally calling for black and the Vogue party mentioning no code at all, most women could be forgiven for taking a little longer than usual to get ready. In fact, it was a wonder anyone managed to leave the house at all. Fittingly for Halloween, black prevailed. But no witches cloaks although there were a few designer capes, a big look for winter

At the private view for Unseen Vogue, held at the Design Museum in SE1, Lady Helen Taylor looked stunning in a fulllength black coat by her favourite designer Giorgio Armani and Stella McCartney was equally fetching in foxy black knickerbockers and shiny red shoes from her spring 2003 collection. Famous models from the Sixties and Seventies, including Bianca Jagger, Jan de Villeneuve and Jill Kensington, viewed their halcyon years at the exhibition, which features unpublished archive photographs by Cecil Beaton, Guy Bourdin and David Bailey and contemporary photographers Corinne Day and Nick Knight.

At the Metropolitan Hotel, a selection of specially created little black dresses from the world's top designers were auctioned for the Elton John Aids Foundation with a chiffon dress by Marni going for £1,300 and a backless shift by Roland Mouret fetching £1,700. Greg Rusedski captured a fluted lace Ungaro couture dress for £3,600, but the highest bid of the night was for a black column dress decorated with Swarovski crystals by John Galliano, which fetched £7,000.

Actress Thandie Newton was in bejewelled velvet Yves Saint Laurent and model Jacquetta Wheeler chose Dior.

Tara Palmer Tompkinson was one of 25 lucky guests to win a rare black diamond donated for the evening by jewellers Mouawad. "I love all things black. At least diamonds, unlike boyfriends, are forever," she said.