Dorchester Collection

LONDON--There’s something furtive-feeling about taking public transportation to the Dorchester. The storied Park Lane hotel is more a chauffeur kind of place, you see. But last night, a clutch of East London’s hardest-working young designers looked wide-eyed and happy to have made it there any way they could, as they sipped Laurent Perrier and hobnobbed with Daphne Guinness to celebrate their status as finalists in the first-ever Dorchester Collection Fashion Prize. Guests of honor included Louise Goldin, Mary Katrantzou, Chau Har Lee, Hermione de Paula and Thomas Tait. It was the judging panel, though, that really brought the star power: there was Guinness, resplendent in a floor-length sequin gown and a cream lace headpiece that she drew across her face like a veil; Yasmin Le Bon in a flippy little Alaia dress; Manolo Blahnik looking natty and correct in a grey suit and evergreen velvet slippers with swimming-pool-aqua bows; and milliner Stephen Jones, wearing a three-piece suit and green cap (dream client: Michelle Obama, because, “she’s not really a hat person”).