At the costume party, there was a man in an embroidered tuxedo whose face was painted like a flat blue sky, dotted with puffed cumulous clouds. This illustrated scene was echoed by his vaporous movements through the dining room, observant, but free-floating. He occasionally glanced at a woman who arrived in an ensemble she titled, “windswept”, her hair and tie suspended sideways in the air. A boy who appeared to be plucked from a Caravaggio painting talked loudly about the geometric chartreuse of a Romanesco while deeply dipping a floret into crème fraîche. A cluster of transparent helium balloons held piles of confetti, waiting to be unrestrained.

The French Boat Shorts in R.S.V.P. are made of all things Italian: custom embroidered in Italy, on black Italian cotton velvet, and lined with an Italian custom-printed silk checkerboard charmeuse. The shorts have a flat horn button closure at the waist, and a darted back, that molds the garment to shape to the body.