Last night, on a spring evening as fine as New York City can offer, a mixed crowd of up and coming designers and fashion industry veterans converged on the Jane Hotel to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Converse's favorite son: the Jack Purcell. In the hotel's recently opened Café Gitane (the status of the Jane's Ballroom remains up in the air), guests ate and drank at the leisure of servers dressed in retro tennis getups worthy of Richie Tenenbaum, inspiring a few young partygoers to appropriate the decoratively placed badminton shuttlecocks as hats. Though hardly the life of the party, the sneakers on display made for an effective centerpiece.

Each pair bore the signature Jack Purcell "toe smile," and the addition of several high tops gave a forward look to the shoe while the brouged leather model referenced the classic wingtips that were so ubiquitous when the Jack Purcell was introduced in 1935. It's still hard to imagine that the Jack Purcell, like its older brother the Chuck Taylor, was once considered a piece of performance sports equipment (the shoe gives about as much support as Tiger will get this weekend at the Masters), but you can't deny that these kicks have a style as eternal as an old pair of Levis.  The night went off without a hitch, and though there was a distinct sensation that the festivities were being filmed secretly by the producers of How To Make It In America, maybe that's the mark of a great party today.