The lineup of designers for last Friday's Macy's Glamorama at the Orpheum Theatre lacked many of the big names we're used to seeing. Fortunately, perennial favorites Jean Paul Gaultier, Marc Jacobs and Sonia Rykiel returned with the most inspiringly staged and styled collections of the night -- though understated in comparison with years past, as seems true of this fall's runways in general.

True to the brand's Parisian roots, Rykiel's fall collection kicked off the show in a "Moulin Rouge"-esque staging set to Rufus Wainwright's "Leaving for Paris No. 2." The collection is ripe with on-trend "heritage" textiles: tartans, fisherman's knits, Fair Isle sweaters and argyles, the prints oversized and the silhouettes elegantly draped, for a look that combined easy Parisian chic with a blue-collar Brit edge.

Gaultier followed with a feather-coiffed, fur-cuffed collection for the ladies who lunch -- in a moody basement jazz club. The collection was inspired by the trappings of the Parisian bourgeoisie: classic trenches, bouclé jackets, pleated trousers and gray bouffants. Glamorama's fashion director, Laura Schara, did an excellent job of selecting pieces, including a stunning silver gown with a caped sleeve that was a standout.

Jacobs' collection showed him moving from the loose, fluid feel of his spring wear to a more severe look, with fitted, bouclé, collared jackets in '60s silhouettes, latex button-downs and rubber dresses that gave the appearance of sequins. Men's fashion also had its moment with nicely styled collections from Armani Jeans and Kenneth Cole Reaction. Dressed in plaids, newsboy caps and skinny suits with the pants tucked into combat boots, Cole's Brit-styled men looked like you might imagine Ewan McGregor and David Beckham as they jaunt about London.

The relative lack of fashion -- eight lines, compared with 12 a year ago -- may be an indicator of the event's heightened focus on entertainment, led by Glamorama's biggest act in years, Bruno Mars. Backed by a four-person band, he closed the show with a polished and poppy 3 1/2-song set that included his hits "Billionaire" and "Just the Way You Are." But the afterparty didn't disappoint in its Dionysian, over-the-top grandness. A guy in a double hula-hooped bodysuit performed all night, models hung out together in all their superhuman glory and kid dancers from the show rolled in (with parental guardian trailing) to do some impromptu break dancing for the increasingly intoxicated crowd, fueled by tequila cocktails from the open bar.

The exact origins of the living-room music collective Coloring Time are hard to trace, but Peter Pisano can pinpoint the first public gig by the new all-star, all-improv group, which plays Thursday at the Cedar Cultural Center. The Peter Wolf Crier frontman -- whose main group plays Vita.mn's August Music & Movies at Lake Harriet Bandshell Friday night -- had just sat down at Pizza Lucé last February with Joe Horton, singer/rapper of No Bird Sing, when he got a call about a gig that night at the XYandZ Gallery.

"I had totally forgotten about it," Pisano admitted. "It was three hours before showtime, and I said, 'Joe, you want to do this with me?'" Thursday's Cedar gig will involve a little more notice and a lot more musicians, but not more musical preparation. Among the 20 musicians committed are Martin Dosh, JT Bates, Jeremy Ylvisaker, Jacob Hanson, Michael Rossetto, Ben Ramsey, David Huckfelt, Chastity Brown, Christopher Keller and Alexei Casselle. Let this serve as a reminder to the aforementioned that you have a gig Thursday night.

Located in the old Sindbad's at 2528 Nicollet Av. S., the venue is comparable in size to the Turf Club.

Michaels said his role will be pretty hands-on. He's helping to design the bar, with the goal of producing fine cocktails as fast as possible. "I think that's the future of craft cocktails," he said. "People want better drinks, but they don't want to wait 15 minutes."

He's already thinking about musician-inspired drinks. "I might name one after Aby Wolf," he said of the local singer-songwriter.

Ellen DeGeneres had big plans for her brief visit to the Twin Cities this week. "I'm going to go to the statue where Mary Tyler Moore threw her hat," she told us Monday night. "I'm going to try to find the hat." She did, in fact, stop at Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis Tuesday morning to see the statue, and chummed it up with Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak. Fans packed the sidewalks surrounding Macy's to hear Rybak declare this week "Ellen DeGeneres Week." That was a compromise for the comedian, who told us she wanted to share her opinions about the city. "It's doing all right," she said, "but I have some ideas. Like Ellen Day, but not just tomorrow. Every day should be Ellen Day."

Her wife, Portia DeGeneres (formerly, Portia de Rossi -- known for her roles on "Ally McBeal" and "Arrested Development"), joined her Monday night at Target Field to watch the Twins play the Boston Red Sox. The celeb couple experienced prime hospitality as stadium staff excitedly awaited their arrival, laying out vegan snacks (neither eats animal products) and bottle upon bottle of wine. DeGeneres said the short trip -- promoting her weekday talk show -- was a happy return to Minneapolis, where she performed early in her career as a stand-up comic. She said she appreciated the smarts of local audiences: "They always got the jokes."

Most notably, Mahoney riffs on Levine mistaking him for a female singer: "Hey Adam Levine, you thought I was a chick / Well, guess what I have a ... ." Yes, the song actually does taper off at that point, but you can probably fill in the (rhyming) blank. See it for yourself at bit.ly/q8QATI.

Eclectic folk/soul/rock group Roma di Luna is -- as co-leader Channy Moon Casselle put it -- "coming to a close" for reasons not made public, but clearly it's more serious than just a rock band splitting up. The group will fulfill its commitment at next weekend's SoundTown festival, and its annual holiday gig Dec. 17 at the Cedar Cultural Center is now being billed as a farewell.

"We aren't quite ready to comment," said Casselle, who formed the band six years ago with childhood sweetheart Alexei Casselle. She is already posting solo demo recordings via Twitter. Alexei will continue to front Kill the Vultures, which performs Saturday at the Square Lake Fest.