They invited everybody and everybody came.

For those of you wondering from the sidelines, now you know what those snake and ladder lines outside the Mandarin Orchard were about on 28 Jan.

Some 2,500 guests RSVP-ed and likely 1 1/2 times that number showed up at the opening of Mandarin Gallery, the intimate-sized mall hugging the hotel's 150m frontage.

Pomp and prominence set the tone for the $200 million facelift (Botox shots can only do so much) to yet another stretch of luxury retail on Orchard Road.

President S R Nathan cut the ribbon and Singapore's VVIPs - numbering 2,500, if you're asking - flooded in for a night of grand shopping (five flagship stores, count 'em!), wining and dining.

Class, glamour and fun mingled with business, entertainment and media.

DJs from the City of Light, Paris, cool-tuned guests as 40 fashion models strutted down the runway.

Designer labels from 32 brands available on all four levels.

Among the new labels launched in Singapore are benWU, Y3, ROOM, Number Fifty, inhabit, Banana Moon, the laundry list sounding like this week's MTV chart toppers.

Mandarin Gallery cannot enthuse enough over the convenience and exclusiveness of its 103 shops.

Here's what it is - an interior that draws light from Japanese-style tea ceremony rooms and a large-scale glass curtain wall, all is rich and boutique-y.

Besides leather goods, fashion apparel, watches and jewellery, travel and lifestyle, hair and beauty, there are seven F&B outlets.

That opening night, guests were encouraged to shop with decent discounts and eat freely at any of the F&B joints.

Decisions, decisions. One should be so lucky to be torn between food and fashion.

A word to the wise: Shop first, before you eat if you want to have a proper fit.