It was like something out of a bacchanal: Endless tables spread with animal pelts of all species spotted and striped and piled with a cornucopia of fruits, cheeses, foie gras and Champagne. Even the veggie spears were decked out gold, dusted with a delicate sprinkle of gold foil. A banquet worthy of Caesar, it was held in honor of another emperor of sorts, Roberto Cavalli — Italy's reigning king of trust-fund hippie style — to celebrate his 40th anniversary in fashion. Kylie Minogue, DJ David Guetta and the cancan girls from Paris' Crazy Horse cabaret regaled the gathered hundreds of fashion glitterati. When Cavalli himself, in a three piece suit with smoky glasses, took to the stage to cut the several-meter- (yard-) tall birthday cake, you almost expected a strip tease dancer to pop out. Herds of Cavalli aficionadas in the maestro's signature zebra and leopard prints grazed at the banquet tables, while the VIPs lounged on animal print couches in their own cordoned-off section of the Paris' Ecole Superieure de Beaux Arts. Supermodels Heidi Klum, Bar Rafaeli and Natalia Vodianova were there, all in Cavalli, of course. And how does it feel to wear Cavalli? "I feel like a princess," British pop star Leona Lewis, in a bustier gown in eye-popping coral, told The Associated Press. "It's like being covered in pure Italian femininity," said French actress Aissa Maiga, wearing a yellow gown of gold chains and chiffon. "Putting on a Cavalli dress gives you an attitude right away," said towering top model Karolina Kurkova, who was working a smoldering gown from the label's archive. "Right away you become fierce." Cavalli, who got his start in fashion by hawking designer jeans to the Riviera jet set, showed his first collection in the City of Light in 1970, so Wednesday's fete was a return to the roots, in a certain sense. A gallery of photos chronicled the evolution of the Cavalli look over the decades, while a selection of his dresses, sprouting feathers, sequins and rhinestones, was set among the marble busts and sculptures. They looked right at home there.
