Of Montreal

Parties during fashion week are a dime a dozen. Even with celebrity sightings, there's a certain sameness to parties: Sip Champagne (usually Veuve Clicquot), totter about the room in irresponsible heels, then gossip about post-runway impressions while discreetly eyeing the flashy ensembles in the room.

Wednesday night's Gilt Groupe, Thrillist and Refinery29 party held at downtown's Santos Party House blew into the party circuit like a breath of fresh air. Billed as a non-fashion fashion week party, the event was in honor of Gilt Fuse, Gilt's new online sample site that features younger and more affordable looks than the original Gilt Groupe.

The crowd was pock-marked with a sampling of New York's music and fashion personalities, from the guys in no-longer-ironic moustaches and askew wool caps to girls in severe platinum bobs and deep red lips. Elle's Kate Lanphear, Vena Cava designers Sophie Buhai and Lisa Mayock, songstresses Solange Knowles and Feist were in attendance.

And then it got weird. Little doses of surreality would take place at unexpected times. A bed set up in the main room would suddenly turn into a set for R-rated miming. The stage curtains opened to reveal actors miming a family dinner that suddenly turns tragic. In the basement dance room, Santa Claus appeared to host girls on his lap, flanked by a pack of elves, and inexplicably, a satyr and a belly-dancer.

And that was before glam rock band of Montreal took the stage at midnight to play a set that included a 15-song encore.