The fashion glitterati turned out in style for the opening of The Costume Institute’s fashion retrospective: “Dangerous Liaisons: Fashion and Furniture in the 18th Century.”

The annual black-tie gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art was hosted by Jude Law; co-chairs were Renee Zellweger and Anna Wintour, with Jayne Wrightsman and Lord Jacob Rothschild as the honorary chairs.

Unlike other years, the exhibit was staged in The Wrightsman Galleries, the French period rooms on the first floor, where vignettes captured the “erotic charge (i.e., seduction) of fashion and furniture between 1750 and 1789.” Harold Koda, curator of The Costume Institute, described it as a time when the aristocracy lived to dress, decorate, and court. “We wanted … to show all the slightly naughty episodes going on,” added creative consultant Patrick Kinmonth.

Guests were invited to dress as the published “fashion plates” of the day … hence the abundance of corsets, bustles, and seductive layers recalling the courtiers and courtesans of that era. Others chose long, fitted gowns in hues of Sun-king gold (like Zellweger) or French champagne (like Diane Kruger). The upswept hairdos (of Eva Mendes and Margherita Missoni) evoked images of Marie Antoinette (pre-guillotine chic).

Among the fashionable: Jennifer Lopez, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, Charlize Theron, Karl Lagerfeld, Anne Heche, Talisa Soto and Benjamin Bratt, Jade Jagger, Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, Julianne Moore, Jerry Seinfeld and Jessica Sklar, Sheryl Crow, Ivanka Trump, Scarlett Johansson, Stella McCartney, Ashanti, Kim Cattrall, Lucy Liu, Natalie Portman, Bernadette Peters, Serena Williams, Gigi Mortimer, and Naomi Watts.

Male “aristocrats” like Lars Nilsson, Calvin Klein, Isaac Mizrahi, Marc Jacobs, Narciso Rodriguez, Helmut Lang, and Mario Testino left the pantaloons, waistcoats, and britches at home. But we weren’t surprised to see Andre Leon Talley, Vogue’s Editor-at-Large, parading around in a flamboyant, 18th-century greatcoat designed by Karl Lagerfeld.

Pre-dinner mingling was staged amidst the glow of Robert Isabell’s too-many-to-count purple-hued candles and 20 feet of ascending lilacs. After the dinner in the American Wing, guests retired to the after-party where they danced the night away. Flirtations abounded. The New York Times called it “Night of the Living Art.” Viva la France!