prize fighting; Ten designers, one assignment: Create a look inspired by a lipstick shade and bring an A-list date to wear it.

Byline: Robert Sullivan

Sure you can make clothes that look great, but can you make clothes that look great and work well with a particular beauty product, such as L'Oreal Paris's Infallible Never Fail Lipcolour-a liquid lipstick that promises to stay on your lips a full sixteen hours? This was the question in the air one night recently when the ten finalists for this year's CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award assembled for a cocktail party in a flower-filled brownstone downtown. Another question: "Where is the pomegranate champagne?" Pomegranate, it turns out, was one of the ten Infallible shades assigned to the designers. In particular, pomegranate was assigned to Threeasfour. "My grandmother had a pomegranate tree in her garden," said Adi Gil, one of the three members of the design team. In addition to a color, each designer brought a date for the evening who wore his or her Infallible-appropriate creation. Phillip Lim (Apricot) apparently said the right thing upon picking up Michelle Williams. "Wow, you look like powder when it goes up in the air, so soft and intangible!" he exclaimed when he arrived at her home.

"We're going to go out tomorrow night," Williams quipped in reply, "and the next night and the next night. . . . "

"Historically, it's my ancestry," said (Scottish) VPL designer Victoria Bartlett of Thistle, her assigned shade, which she used to create the dress worn by filmmaker Arden Wohl. Next to them was the jewelry Philip Crangi had designed for his lipstick-wearing accomplice, Chloe Sevigny-a silkworm- inspired necklace, apropos of Mulberry- as well as Crangi and Sevigny themselves. "She was on the top of my date list," he said. "I think she's ...