The new art cafe Brasserie Erte in the Aerostar Hotel hosted an art-party called "The Return of Erte" on Oct. 23 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the creation of Erte's famous "Blue Glaze Dessert"– a dish made of strawberries covered in a blue glaze.

Russian-born Roman Tyrtov, whose name became "Erte" after the French pronunciation of his initials, was one of the foremost fashion and stage designers of the early 20th century. After emigrating to Paris in 1912, where he lived until his death in 1990, he became a fashion illustrator for the journal Harper's Bazaar, to which he contributed for 22 years. In the latter part of his life, he moved on the sculpture. He is perhaps best-remembered for the wonderfully extravagant costumes he designed for the Folies-Bergere in Paris, which exploited to the full his taste for the exotic and romantic.

The party's highlights included a reconstruction of Erte's famous hairstyle created specially for Mata Hari in 1931 by hairstylist George Rovals, and a presentation of a new fashion collection by Katya Filippova, inspired by Erte's work.

At an improvised auction held toward the end of the party, a businessman bought some 1892 Courvoiser cognac in a bottle designed by Erte for $16,000. To the astonishment of party guests, he then immediately opened the bottle and invited his friends to help him polish it off.

The party attracted a number of show-biz personalities, including the host of the TV program "Delikatesy" (Delicatessen), Svetlana Konnegen; Malaya Bronnaya Theater director Andrei Zhitinkin; and pop singer Vitas. The organizers asked the pop singer to impersonate Erte at the party because of their similar appearance. Vitas, however, was not terribly enthusiastic about the idea and spent most of the evening sitting in a corner.