Dennis Basso calls his winter 2005 fur collection East Meets West Meets Park Avenue. Taking his cue, I’d call the crowd at his fashion show, held Monday at the New York Public Library, Fifth Avenue Meets Madison Avenue Meets Park Avenue.

That is to say, all the Upper East Siders who schmooze with Mr. Basso at charity events came out to see his new collection. Need we name names? All right, just a few we didn’t snap were Somers White, Susan Fales-Hill, and Joan Collins.

Mr. Basso’s Native American and Indian looks aren’t coming right off the runway. It’s a bit too warm out to wear his fur coats, jackets, skirts, and pants. But oh, once the weather turns chilly, you can be certain to spot Mr. Basso’s creations all over town. They sure looked good in the setting of the New York Public Library, so I hope to see some Basso at the library’s fall benefit. I’d probably wear the floor-length prairie skirt made of tiers of black lace and sable.

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At a celebration Tuesday for a leading defender of the freedom of the press, guests enjoyed their freedom to party in the press’s headquarters.

The financial news service famous for its terminals, Bloomberg LLP, held the party for Floyd Abrams in honor of the lawyer’s new book, “Speaking Freely: Trials of the First Amendment” (Viking).

More than 200 people assembled on Bloomberg’s sixth floor, a space with towering glass walls and expansive outdoor terraces. The room is called the Link, as it links the east and west sides of the office space. The high-tech decor includes gigantic multipanel news tickers and several Bloomberg terminals. The art on the north-facing glass walls is Julian Opie’s “Crowd,” a series of standing figures in primary colors, made of vinyl. Everything was fresh and new, as the Bloomberg firm moved into the building, designed by Cesar Pelli, only six months ago.

Guests didn’t just waltz in off the street. First they stopped by the security desk in the lobby, where they picked up badges to wear around their necks, printed with their names and affiliations. More than half the guests had “Cahill Gordon & Reindel” on their badge, the law firm where Mr. Abrams is a partner. Others, including Mr. Abrams’s wife, Efrat, and the author Dan Kurzman, were identified by the phrase “Friend of Floyd.” Also spotted: lawyer Bernard Nussbaum and judge Michael Corriero, who has just finished the final chapter of a book on the juvenile justice system, “Trying Children as Children.”

To feed the guests, the chef in charge at Bloomberg, Michael Fraino, prepared hamburgers and hot dogs on brioche buns. (Bloomberg employees love their comfort food – the most popular dish is macaroni and cheese.) The dessert tables featured bowls of cherries and gourmet chocolates.

About an hour into the party, Mr. Abrams and the editor in chief of Bloomberg News, Matt Winkler, gave remarks from a perch above the crowd, on a floating staircase at the center of the room. “I did have a little feel of being Mussolini. There was a charming Fascistic sense,” Mr. Abrams said the day after the party in a telephone interview.

It turns out the staircases and escalators are symbolic at Bloomberg of a company culture that encourages interaction and the sharing of ideas. Employees generally use the stairs and escalators instead of the elevators.

Mr. Abrams put his chief issue in context. “We meet tonight at a time when the press is in trouble in a variety of ways,” he said, citing “major problems with the confidentiality of sources and major problems with the FCC expanding its definition of ‘indecency.’ “He mentioned that more than 60 ABC affiliates had refused to show the movie “Saving Private Ryan” for fear of sanctions.

“My greatest concern about the state of the First Amendment is the amount and nature of the irresponsible attacks on the judiciary by members of Congress and others,” Mr. Abrams said.

“These dangers are not limited to the First Amendment, but they have potential to do First Amendment harm, because the sort of speech that is often deemed protected under the First Amendment is unpopular speech, offensive speech, the very sort of speech that members of Congress and others find least tolerable,” Mr. Abrams said.

Sensing the mood of the crowd was turning dark, Mr. Abrams joked: “Someone like myself probably doesn’t need the First Amendment, because I’m such a serious, responsible, centrist fellow.” In the end, however, “All of us really need it, because the sort of cases it comes in tend to be about unpopular people saying unpopular things.”

Mr. Abrams then delivered a piece of news that proved to be very popular with the crowd. His daughter Ronnie Abrams, an assistant U.S. attorney, gave birth to a girl, Thea Abrams Andrews, on May 12 at New York University Hospital. She and her husband, Greg Andrews, also have a 2-year-old daughter, Dylan. But they left both children at home to attend the book party.

The Abrams family will again congregate June 1 at a benefit for Elem, an Israeli organization that provides counseling and other services to teenagers who have run adrift. Floyd and Efrat are the honorees at the event.