The best bit came from a scene remixed from “Up in the Air,” when Mr. Combs was shown as an employee in the process of being downsized.

“There’s enough room in fashion for all of us,” he said defensively, as he brushed away runway photos of his presumed replacement. “I had a CFDA Award 10 years ago!”

This pretty much sums up the direction in which the Council of Fashion Designers of America has been heading in recent years with its glitzy awards night, which is often referred to as the Oscars of the fashion world. Like that aging trophy institution of Hollywood, the fashion council is trying valiantly to draw a younger audience, spicing up the awards and replacing the rubber-chicken sit-down dinner with passed plates of mini lobster rolls and mini hamburgers. But its efforts to look hip sometimes reveal an uneasy tension happening between the old guard and the new, with heartfelt tributes to designers of longstanding achievement clashing against an embrace of the overnight sensations who are storming the gates. The establishment can only bend so far.

Marc Jacobs, who won the evening’s top prize as women’s wear designer of the year gave one of those I-don’t-like-prizes-but-I-wrote-a-speech-anyway speeches, and yet he seemed a tad annoyed when pointing out that he hadn’t won one for a few years, despite repeated nominations. Ralph Lauren, meanwhile won a “popular vote” award, based on an “American Idol”-inspired online voting contest, but the prize was given the shortest of shrift, presumably because Mr. Lauren already knows he is popular, having won the same award last year.

From the guest list to the gowns, however, the party reflected a youth quake happening in fashion, with a parade of short dresses worn by Dakota Fanning (Marchesa), Liya Kebede (Proenza Schouler), Emilie de Ravin (BCBG Max Azria) and Jessica Stam (a super-short black slip by Giambattista Valli that was covered with floor-length see-through tulle). There was an extra touch of glamour this year when a sleek-look Gwyneth Paltrow, shrink-wrapped in black Michael Kors sequins, arrived with the designer. Trailed by a dozen reporters, she headed straight for the bar and promptly spilled a martini on Diane Von Furstenberg, the fashion council president who had rushed to greet her. Ms. Von Furstenberg, unfazed, continued to make the rounds from editors to designers to Sarah Jessica Parker, in a trailing Alexander McQueen dress.