Flights Of Fancy.

Byline: FLORENCE KANE editor: Sarah Brown

Inspired by eye shadow and butterflies, the Fashion Fund finalists create flirty, color-rich party looks.

" S-a-l-a-m-i-s t-e-m-o-r-a, " designer Richard Chai expertly spelled out, reciting the name of a butterfly from Africa whose wings, coincidentally, are the same shades of brilliant blue and brown as L'OrA[c]al's High Intensity Pigments (HiP) eye-shadow duo "Roaring." How else are they related?

That's what Chai and his fellow CFDA/ VOGUE Fashion Fund finalists revealed one recent evening over cocktails in a flower-filled Greenwich Village town house. Each designed a look based on a HiP shadow set and a butterfly of the same shades, and brought dates to wear them. Had Jason Wu ever met Leighton Meester before she said yes to wearing his beaded "Flare" frock? "Yes!" again. "She was front row at my spring show." Meester's boyfriend, actor Sebastian Stan, was wearing metallic silver wing-tips made by Alejandro Ingelmo, who fashioned winged stiletto boots in the bronze and gold of "Bustling" for his other companion, Lake Bell. "I've never seen such heights! These are superhero shoes!" exclaimed the actress. Christina and Swaim Hutson, the husband-and-wife team behind Obedient Sons & Daughters, were on a double date with filmmaker Chiara Clemente (in a "Riotous" dA[c]gradA[c] silk suit in olive- and lime-green) and her beau, jewelry designer/actor Waris Ahluwalia. Raquel Zimmermann's "Flamboyant" Vena Cava frock had the name of the designers' butterfly, Sasakia charonda, in gold sequins across the front, and included "wings" as a train. Actress Olivia Thirlby was bedecked in strands of oxidized gold with opals, brown diamonds, and peach moonstones set with a butterfly clasp by jeweler Irene Neuwirth. "I used my butterfly for ideas and then pumped it up a notch," said Neuwirth.

"Here, let me model it for you," said Zoe Kravitz, twirling in Alexander Wang's "Saucy" mini, designed to "look like a caterpillar unraveling." Milliner Albertus Swanepoel's tulle hat (worn by model Oluchi) had his assigned inspiration, Callithea leprieuri (in "Showy" shades), aflutter in it, while Juan Carlos Obando ...