Van Cleef & Arpels held an event, Une Journée à Paris, on Tuesday, the first night of Fashion Week, to market its line of one-of-a-kind pieces inspired by drawings from its archives.

The Parisian jewelry company, founded in 1906, had launched the line a year ago in Paris, and made stops to promote it in Hong Kong, Beijing, Tokyo, and London. Clients from New York, Texas, Florida, California, and a few other places — some 1,200 total — attended the pageant of models, gems, and all things Paris at the Hammerstein Ballroom.

Guests, who included the actresses Mischa Barton, Demi Moore, Marcia Gay Harden, and Ashley Olsen, were ushered through a maze of living tableaus composed of models wearing the literally unique pieces.

“It’s Disney World for grown-ups,” socialite Muffie Potter Aston said of the slowly moving line that wound through the tableaus and finally led guests to the Hammerstein Ballroom’s auditorium, where there was a formal show.

But in this case, slow was good, and let the guests get a close look at the jewelry.

“I’m loving how they combine rubber with diamonds on that watch. It’s so chic,” a CBS “Early Show” correspondent, Christy Ferer, said en route from the “Opéra” tableau to the “Place Vendôme” display. Ms. Aston’s pal Jamee Gregory said she liked the buckle bracelet, while Ms. Aston liked a diamond zipper bracelet and a bird brooch with round circular feathers, shown on a sleeve.

The proscenium show was a jewelry catwalk set against fantasy montages of a Van Cleef-ized Paris, in which apartment doors and sidewalks gleamed with jewels. With more than a thousand people seated cabaret-style all the way to the balcony, most people in the audience had difficulty appraising the jewelry. However, when two live poodles —one white and one hot pink — came out on stage, peals of laughter rippled through the theater.

For this affair, the jewels were more important than the clothes. Socialite Marie-Anne Dreher proudly showed off her Van Cleef engagement ring, which she received from her fiancé, Daniel Hewig, in July.

Wandy Hoh was wearing a Van Cleef signature, the Alhambra necklace, which her husband, William Hoh, bought her last Christmas at the 57th Street store. Asked his profession, Mr. Hoh said, “Not that original. Hedge funds.”

Certainly not as original as Van Cleef’s one-of-a-kind designs.

agordon@nysun.com