Stars glitter for Super Mario

Bring together Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow, Mario Testino, Vogue and the National Portrait Gallery and you get London's glitziest party of the year. Testino - Super Mario - has been the favourite snapper of the stars for a generation, the man who can make the most hung-over, coked-out thespian, model, princess, look a screen idol to die for the next morning.

Princess Diana adored him and so did the vast throng at his retrospective exhibition at the NPG last night. More than 1,000 guests, dressed to fight for cover space, crowded into the party staged by Vogue, sponsored by Land Rover, brimming over with Dom Perignon and stuffing the sort of canapes you don't get in packets in pubs.

Kate Moss and her man, magazine publisher Jefferson Hack, were there, cavorting round the larger-than-lifesize Testino images of herself. Paltrow wowed the crowd in a black trouser suit. Madonna wore a double-breasted white coat and brought daughter Lourdes. With her husband Guy Ritchie in trademark pinstripe, she drew the biggest roar from the crowd on the pavement outside as she arrived.

NPG director Charles Saumarez Smith has endured some criticism for devoting big space in a great national collection to the work of a Peruvian fashion photographer. Yet Saumarez Smith's genius in finding ways of luring the coolest names and faces in town into what was once a tired old Victorian collection, shows why he is now front-runner to succeed Neil MacGregor as director of the National Gallery.

The process of eager young Paltrow-Madonna-Moss wannabes who acted as extras for the last night's party just kept coming well into the night. If the cleaners find unfamiliar white powder in the loos this morning, you can tell them it isn't flour. "Ooh, look, royalty's here," said someone, and in swept New York Vogue's ice queen Anna Wintour, coiffeured to the last detail, accompanied by date Shelby Bryan.

Alex Shulman, editor of London Vogue, greeted the guests - she is a trustee of the NPG, which may help to explain the match of Testino and the venue.

None of the stars who dominate the exhibition seemed even a smidgen embarrassed to be spotted gazing at their own images. Like the Princess of Wales, Kate Moss and Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow has a special section of the 120-image show dedicated to herself and of course, the pictures look fantastic. Madonna was heard bemoaning the recent kiss-and-tell revelations of former boyfriend Andy Bird: "It just shows you can't trust anyone - but then I knew that already."

Gucci maestro Tom Ford was in attendance sporting a beard. He was joined by fellow fashion aristocrats Eva Herzigova, Jacquetta Wheeler, Stella McCartney in a large shapeless parka, Alexander McQueen, Sir Paul Smith, Nicole Fahri, Matthew Williamson, Julien MacDonald and Helena Christensen. Fellowguest Francesca Versace - niece of Gianni - has recently started her fashion studies at Central St Martin's to groom her for succession to the family's fashion dynasty.

The most striking fashionista pairing, however, was the eccentric muse Isabella Blow - who discovered Sophie Dahl - and her escort for the evening, famed hat-maker Philip Treacy, one of whose baroquely feathered confections adorned Ms Blow's carefully-erect head. And, almost playing extras in this starry mob, there were Ben Elliot, Eliot Sandiford, Jasper and Terence Conran, David Ginola and Jemima Khan, who spent much of the evening with her ear locked to her mobile phone. Others there were Ron Wood and his family, including daughter Leah, Skunk Anansie's singer Skin, Elizabeth Jagger and Natalie Imbruglia, Lady Amanda Harlech, Lady Helen Windsor and her husband Tim Taylor, and Salman Rushdie. At the lower end of the celebrity spectrum was newsreader Kirsty Young, Lady Victoria Hervey and Nicky Haslam.

As for Testino, the man who first saw London when he worked here as a waiter:"Tonight is fantastic," he said, "I am so glad you have all come."

Gallery: the celebs at Mario's party
Super Mario - he's picture perfect
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