Hillary Clinton was there, in periwinkle silk, bodyguards in tow. So was Oprah Winfrey, glittering stones in her hair. So was almost the entire American fashion establishment, old (Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Carolina Herrera, Diane von Furstenberg) and new (Kanye). So was Spielberg. So was Schwarzman.

Movie stars and power brokers rained down, but not the rain itself, though all day storm-gray clouds had lain low overhead. Even nature, it seemed, had decided to pay homage to Ralph Lauren and his 50 years of fashion on Friday night.

And the celebration turned Central Park — and more specifically Bethesda Terrace, the graceful arched circular promenade at the heart of the park — into a space that seems increasingly elusive in the current public discourse: a cynicism-free zone. A candlelit argument for the restoring balm of, as Ms. Winfrey noted in a toast to the designer, “bedazzlement.”