We waited in line like good little reporters last night while limousines containing D-list celebs drove slowly by the MAC Viva Glam dinner-party, feeling out the perfect moment for their guests’ entrances. Can’t be the first glamazon at the champagne bar, we guess. The best thing about slogging it out on the red carpet line is that you get to hear the gossip mag writers talk smack about, like, Kristin Cavallari as she’s coming down the carpet, and then shine it on when asking her about her workout regimen (trainer when she needs it, in case you’re wondering). And the best part about being a rock reporter is that after watching Lil’ Kim, Christina, and Lisa Marie Presley saunter inside, then chatting with Kelis, Eve, Russell Simmons, and Dita Von Teese, we don’t have to hang around asking Padma Lakshmi about her cookbook.

The big point of the evening was to introduce ourselves to the remarkable Dita, who will be our guide through fashion week.

Can we just say that not only is she beautiful and poised and all that, but she’s intelligent and witty and we love her already? Okay we said it. Russell Simmons was busy praising Kelis and Eve’s zeitgeist-defining prowess as both musicians and fashion icons, saying, “if they like something, it’s hot – they make it move.” Kelis took a more humble approach to explaining her influence on fashion and fashion’s influence on her. “Matthew Williamson is a really good friend of mine and whether it’s him or Balenciaga or YSL, we inspire each other. Onstage people watch us and they want to see what to wear and on their stage I watch them and say ‘that’s what I’m gonna wear.’ It’s a marriage.” Aw, sweet.

Eve told us that she is seriously amped for this year’s fashion week, especially now that she lives on the West coast and misses New York. “I love being in the city this time of year cause it just feels good,” she explains before giving us the skinny on her “definitely almost finished” new album and the clothes she’ll need to match it. “With this album, everything has to be a look. Everything has to match with the sound and the clothes, everything has to look like I did it on purpose. I’m older now I want to be seen as a woman,” she says. “I want to accentuate certain things without being seen as vulgar – be a little more chic but still edgy.” Eve, who worked with what she calls an “All Star Team” of producers on her new record — including Swizz Beatz, Dr. Dre, Cool and Dre, Timbaland, and Pharrell, among others — says she had a great time in the studio but that even those professional relationships are all about finding middle ground. “With people and with artists it always takes a minute to get into the groove with each other. It’s a compromise. Once you get past that you’re fine.”