"The City" star Whitney Port looked every inch the sophisticated New Yorker when she stepped into the Hudson Hotel on Monday night, dressed head-to-toe in Valentino, paired with TACORI earrings, bracelet and cuff. The fashion house was sponsoring a benefit for the Lincoln Center Institute, a new charity designed to help bring art curriculum into schools.

"My mother is an art teacher, actually," Port told StyleList of her own creative upbringing. "She teaches out of our house in L.A.--she made my older brother's room into an art studio and teaches about four classes a day."

While she didn't have the cameras with her on Monday, Port continues to be one of the hardest-working women in reality-biz.

"I'm continuing to film our second season of 'The City,' and I'm working on the third season of my clothing line, Whitney Eve," she said. "Right now we have a lot of fun, flirty dresses, and some great satin shorts, and interesting-textured vests. And I have a book coming out in January called 'True Whit.' It's basically a how-to guide for girls in that quarter-life crisis."

(Maybe Lindsay Lohan, who was also in attendance, should get an advanced copy.)

Carlos Souza, the Brazilian charmer who for decades was Valentino's right-hand man and is now in charge of "social and V.I.P. relations" for the house, was surrounded by stunning women on the hotel's terrace.

"We're dressing some wonderful, beautiful girls tonight," he said as New York socials and actresses of the non-reality variety such as Mamie Gummer and Zoe Kazan (with beau Paul Dano) and flitted about.

As the social maestro of one of the world's most legendary labels, we wondered what Souza's personal, must-have fashion accessory is. "A smile," he said, white teeth beaming from underneath his tan.

Read a recent review of Port's Fall 2010 Collection for Whitney Eve.