All Gussied Up…

(Top Left: Kim Todd at the Dress for Success luncheon; Top Center: Angela Menino and Jacqui Budd at the Dress for Success luncheon; Top Right: Nancy Schneider at the Dress for Success luncheon; Bottom Left: Karen Holmes Ward, Susan Wornick and Shayna Seymour at the Dress for Success luncheon; Bottom Right: Julie Kahn, Catherine Stanton Schiff, Denise Leyhe and Rebecca LeBlanc at the Dress for Success luncheon)

You only get one chance to make a first impression, which is why Dress for Success Boston is such an important nonprofit.

Dedicated to helping women prepare to enter the work force, the charity held its 10th annual Celebrating Self-Sufficiency luncheon at the Fairmont Copley Plaza, which attracted the likes of board chair Jacqui Budd and the super-suave Wayne, co-founders Enith Levine and Nancy Schneider, brunette beauty Julie Burns, blond bombshell Julie Kahn, force of nature Joanne Jaxtimer, first lady Angela Menino and her daughter, Susan Fenton, the gorgeous Shayna Seymour, beautiful bootlegger Catherine Stanton Schiff, fashion plate Janaial Robinson, marketing guru Joan Jolley, power chick Carol Fulp, brunette babe Robin Jones, PR princess Alyssa Stevens, pixieish do-gooder Allyce Najimy, nonprofit booster Carolyn Casey, the corkscrew-curled Katie Knowlton, Channel 5 divas Susan Wornick and Karen Holmes Ward, Citizens Bank bigwig Denise Leyhe and Brookline babe Susan Elsbree, who toasted to having dressed and prepped more than 10,000 women for job interviews.

Head honcho Kim Todd cracked up the crowd by observing, “If you think you’re too small to make an impact, you’ve never been in bed with a mosquito.”

However, the afternoon’s funniest remark came from the woman who looked at the tray of desserts and said, “If I even touch that, I’ll gain 10 pounds.”

The Rain Stays Mainly in the Plain…

(Top Left: Janet Wu at A Feast of Music); Top Center: Deb Hanley, Sibila Gloggler and Hope Baker at A Feast of Music; Top Right: Uzo and Erik Erlingsson at A Feast of Music; Bottom Left: Mariano Bernal, Julio Nunez Montesinos, Carlos San Isidro, Antonio Najarro, Christian Roig and Felix Alcaraz at A Feast of Music; Bottom Right: Adelle Chang, Joshua Major and Lisa and Tom Blumenthal at A Feast of Music)

Even the world’s biggest glutton would have been gratified by A Feast of Music, the black-tie fundraiser for New England Conservatory held at the Fairmont Copley Plaza.

This year, the evening boasted a Spanish theme, and short of mantillas and castanets, guests went all-out. Prominent among the throng: the petite but powerful Hope Baker, the uber-chic Deb Hanley with her architect other half, Frank McGuire, the gorgeous duo of Suki de Braganca and Ty Sinnett with the Miguels, pére et fils, tech wunderkind Bernardo Hernández and his compatriots, impresarios Antonio Najarro and Carlos San Isidro, the wildly talented portraitist Yoshi Mizutani with his stunningly beautiful bride, Francesca Polverino, Wellesley party pair Michael and Laurel Schnittman, hedge fund babe Cate Faddis and the indefatigable Dave, Argentine stunner Sibila Gloggler and her lucky husband, David Korb, the impossibly chic Uzo Erlingsson and her genius other half, Erik, blue-blooded do-gooders Peter and Catherine Creighton, Russian Bond girl Rita Rudyak, Babson babe Amanda Roosevelt and one woman who said, “I love Spanish men. They dance even if they’re not drunk.”

A feast fit for King Felipe accompanied by superb Spanish wines was punctuated by entertainment from Conservatory students and a tour de force performance by flamenco superstar Mariano Bernal of the Ballet Nacional de España, and after dessert and coffee, everyone repaired to the Oval Room for a dance party that raged well into the wee hours. The evening’s funniest exchange: “We’re leaving for a wedding in New Orleans in the morning and then going out to Deer Valley to go skiing.”

“I hope you’re continuing straight on to Promises in Malibu.”