Una Mullally's Lost In A Launch - Recession session in a boarded-up shop

Karen Thompson, Marie O'Shea & Abby Gilbourne at the Brown Thomas Fashion Show

Cecelia Ahern at the Irish Book Award Nominations

Colette Fitzpatrick & Niall McDermott at the 'New York, New York' evening

Sasha Vasilieva & Celine Sheridan at the Nokia Young Fashion Designer Awards

With the parallel universe of launch-land being hit by the recession as much as everything else is, pity the poor socialites who have had to put up with some seriously sub-par parties of late. Thankfully the good weather and summer sticking its head over the horizon seems to be changing things.

While no new use has yet to be found for Habitat's former home on Dame Street, at least they open the doors for a bit of a party once in a while. Last Thursday, it was the turn of the Sixth Nokia Young Fashion Designer Award 2009 to fill the colossal space, with Perrier mojitos overflowing into the laps of models, fashion students and the rest of the too-packed crowd that packed the space. The organisers – in a rather ill-advised move – decorated the catwalk with a healthy sprinkling of something that looked far too like cocaine for any fashionista in the front row to be comfortable with. But those in the front row were the lucky ones, as the show was achingly overcrowded, leaving one young stylist to bitch about "the Ryanair vibe".

Off The Rails presenter Sonya Lennon borrowed some clothes from House Of Fraser to style a catwalk display of her own. Clearly inspired by Lady Gaga, the collection showcased most of the models without pants, which probably works when you're covered in sequins and hitting some hot club in Williamsburg of a Saturday, but possibly not when you're mostly wearing beige granny knickers so large even Bridget Jones might shun them on a duvet day, as most of the models were. Special Lost In A Launch props go to model Asheen Naidoo who owned the catwalk.

In the end, the winning cheque for €5,000 went to Aoife Gallagher from NCAD, while the rest of the crowd wondered whether or not to shovel the fake catwalk coke into their Hermes bags for the after-party at Residence.

And so to the dancefloor. With disco decimating indie clubs at the moment, it was time for two scenesters to join forces and launch their own monthly club night at Spy on South William Street, which is bulging at its seams with new parties at the moment. (Disco night Spank launched on Friday.) PR head and Bitches With Wolves frontman James O'Neill and his pal Sarah Byrne got the troops together for the first night of their military-themed bash WAR featuring gratuitous face painting (pictured above) and spin the bottle.

The hedonism continued the next day as artists, anarchists, scenesters and activists with a subversive conscience hit Seomra Spraoi for the first Queer Ball last Saturday. Greeted with chandeliers made from bicycle wheels, cassette tapes and fairy lights, the bring your own booze policy and gloriously dressed-up crowd set the atmosphere, as did the excellent prom band who blasted out '90s dance and hip-hop covers loaded with irony.

The mood was a little more low-key at the Brown Thomas Spring Summer 'fashion show' on Tuesday. It was all a bit sedate, especially after the more jovial mood at the Absolut Dublin Gay Theatre Festival launch earlier in the evening, which saw Senator David Norris impersonating Martin Cullen with scary accuracy after the arts minister pulled out from launching the festival at the 11th hour. Something to do with being locked in a room discussing the budget – a detail the vodka-fuelled crowd didn't really care for.

Hey, you can't spell recession with out session. Kind of.

April 5, 2009