(Reporting by Jan Paschal)

 Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, famous for her chilly demeanor, surprised the black-tie crowd at amfAR’s New York Gala with her warm introduction of New York designer Donna Karan, an amfAR honoree, on Thursday night. The event packed Cipriani on 42nd Street on the eve of New York Fashion Week.

  Wintour recalled how years ago, “Donna enlisted the Calvin Kleins and the Ralph Laurens” and the rest of the Council of Fashion Designers of America to band together to fight AIDS, the disease that devastated the fashion industry in the 1980s. Out of that came the Seventh on Sale benefit and other work to raise money for AIDS research to find a cure.
    “Everyone refers to Donna as an earth mother,” Wintour said. “When we go to visit her, she feeds us, drapes us in fabric and tells us about her latest cause.”
    Actress Natasha Richardson told the crowd how touched she was by “hearing Anna speak with such heart and passion, this so-called ice queen of fashion.”
    Karan, in a one-shoulder black gown, said thatafter seeing “all these designers dropping right in front of us” more than 20 years ago, she had to do something.
    Liza Minnelli, also honored by amfAR, got a standing ovation after she sang. She wore a brown sequined tunic and leggings designed by amfAR chairman Kenneth Cole. Among the celebrities there were Harry Belafonte, Dick Cavett and Mario Cantone.
    A Louis Vuitton vanity case, designed by actress Sharon Stone, was among items auctioned for amfAR by Jamie Niven, chairman of Sotheby’s North and South America. “Not much room for underpants,” he joked, holding up the case — a wink to Stone’s star turn in “Basic Instinct.”

Anna Wintour may be all-powerful in the world of fashion as editor of Vogue magazine but it seems even the almighty can get it wrong when it comes to frocks. Wintour topped a list in Time magazine of the fashion faux pas of 2008, wearning a silver dress to the Met Costume Gala that “makes her look like she’s encrusted with ammonoid fossils.”

But the stylish Wintour had some good company on the list. Coming in second place was Janet Jackson in a gold jumpsuit she wore to open the concerts on her RockWitchu tour which Time said did not seem to fit quite right and made her look like she came from another planet.

Christian Siriano, who won the fourth season of “Project Runway,” came under fire for wearing a gold, ruffled satin shirt while others in the firing line included Gwyneth Paltrow, Beyonce, Paula Abdul, Katie Holmes, and Kate Bosworth whose Chanel ensemble looked “like stacked muffin tins.”

Think of any others?