"I don't need to go to the gym, I just wear this dress," model Devon Aoki joked of her heavy Marchesa gown at the Wildlife Conservation Society's black-tie gala at New York City's Central Park Zoo. She sat with the dress's designer, Georgina Chapman, and actress Emmy Rossum in a dining tent that also hosted the Broadway star Bernadette Peters and Oscar-winner Mira Sorvino.

Gillian Hearst Simonds, a publishing heiress who has been involved with the Society for eight years, was serving for the first time as one of the event's co-chairs. "The educational aspects are so important," she told StyleList of the Society's work.

"A lot of children in New York would never get to experience animals and wildlife otherwise." (The WCS funds New York-area zoos as well as conservation and habitat programs around the world.)

Hearst Simonds was also wearing a black Marchesa gown, and clutched a witty Judith Leiber clutch in the shape of a peacock. Leiber was another of the fashion heavy-hitters supporting the benefit, along with Hermès, Baccarat, and Steuben Glass.

Fashion legend Liz Claiborne's widower, Art Ortenberg, was a master of ceremonies, and attended the dinner with his current partner, New York Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn.

The theme of the gala, Flights of Fancy, aimed to draw attention to the ecological contribution of the planet's birdlife. The WCS currently works to protect some 350 species of birds internationally -- not including chickens, apparently, which were the main course at dinner.

Speaking of birds and the stylish set, hear about Sarah Jessica Parker's iconic feathered hat from the "Sex and the City" star herself.