“This is an homage to the Ball scene; I’m not talking about testicles, even though I love them very much,” joked a svelte, lavender haired Kelly Osbourne, hostess of last night’s inaugural Love Hangover Ball at the W Hotel in Union Square. Bawdy pageantry and exaggerated glamour were the dictates of the evening. What else would you expect from a meeting of the fashion world and the Ballroom community, twain villages of spectacle, sparkle, and the calculated hauteur colloquially known as “fierceness.”

But this was fierceness with a cause. The dapper likes of Jason Wu, Zac Posen, Isaac Mizrahi, Stefano Tonchi, Bryan Boy, and Derek Blasberg packed the room like a can of bespoke sardines in support of the Foundation for AIDS Research. The evening’s proceedings were overseen by Osbourne, Ball scene veteran Jack Mizrahi, and ribald alternative nightlife impresaria Ladyfag. (Ladyfag on Blasberg: “We have so much in common, because nobody has any idea what we do for a fucking living.”) Black Eyed Peas front woman Fergie, Paper Magazine director Mickey “Mr. Mickey” Boardman, choreographer Fatima Robinson, Barney’s creative ambassador Simon Doonan, W style director Edward Enninful, and Ballroom scene legends Grandfather Hector Xtravaganza and Andre Mizrahi judged a series of competitions. Dancers hailing from different historic Voguing houses strutted, posed, contorted, and sashayed across the elevated runway, while — somewhat ironically — supermodels Karlie Kloss, Lily Donaldson, and Nicole Trunfio watched from the sidelines.

The logic behind the different competitions was a tad inscrutable for a Vogueing virgin such as this reporter. The competitions were titled “Butch Queen Realness,” “Sex Siren,” “Face,” and, finally, “Performance.” Genders were slippery and sometimes unknowable. Dancer and choreographer Danielle Polanco’s (pictured, inset) raunchy floor dance earned her the evening’s top prize. After the show, the guests headed downstairs to W’s subterranean bar Lilium, where they did a little grinding of their own into the single digits of the night. Kloss, Donaldson, Wu, and Boy held court on a large banquet in the corner, while the Ballroom contestants and their monster-heeled compadres tore up the dance floor.

Click on the slideshow to see images from the Love Hangover Ball at the W Hotel.