Sitting at Dennis Basso fashion premieres over the years, on gilded chairs at some of New York City's most celebrated venues - - the Pierre, the Mark, the Plaza -- has been endlessly fascinating. Everyone agrees, the show starts well before the first model makes an entrance. It's a game of Spot That Celebrity; and Who Is That Woman, She Looks So Familiar?; and, I Can't Believe Anybody Would Wear That Hat; and Wow, Look At That Rock On Her Finger!

Unlike the usually jaded fashion show crowd (and if these people aren't jaded by now, when will they be?), Dennis's ladies applaud. Enthusiastically. Wildly. For nearly every single piece. And when the celebrity guest model steps out for the finale -- in recent years he's presented Patti LaBelle, Joan Rivers, Ivana Trump and Eartha Kitt -- the Ladies who Lunch go crazy. Standing ovations are the norm for Dennis's shows.

And I'll let you in on a little secret. Most other furriers are bewildered by this fanaticism. It's not that Basso's designs are so much better (or any better, critics would say) than anybody else's on Seventh Avenue.

So what engenders a client list like First Lady Hilary Rodham Clinton, Elizabeth Taylor, Barbara Walters, Eartha Kitt, Star Jones, Patti LaBelle, Joan Rivers, Ivana Trump and Jaclyn Smith, not to mention influential women in a myriad other fields?

It's probably the fact that most of these ladies aren't just customers; they're friends and part of the constant social swirl, in which Dennis engulfs himself.

He is consistently active in charity organizations, staging shows and working behind the scenes on committees. He loves to entertain, along with his companion Michael Cominotto, in New York City or in the Hampton's during the summer. He gives a party and fashion show in Aspen every year for 300 people.

When Princess Ira von Furstenberg invited Basso to show some of his creations in Paris this June, at the home of friend Regine Nahmani, Basso was thrilled to pack up his entire, 90-piece collection and make the trek -- with bodyguards. He staged two shows there, then stayed on for three days in the Hotel Crillon's presidential suite to show to private clients.

He was thrilled to undertake this substantial task. He still sounds just as excited as an apprentice when he rhapsodizes, "It's every designer's dream to show in Paris, the traditional fashion capital of the world. And do you know, Frederic Castet -- the former Christian Dior designer -- attended? I couldn't believe it. It was fabulous."

After visiting the White House more than once and working with Mrs. Clinton, you'd think he would be immune; instead, it seems Basso greets everything with fresh energy and amazement. About five years ago he designed for the First Lady several coats and shawls in a cashmere-wool blend and a faux fur evening coat, which she wore to many of the second inauguration festivities.

"It's very important to me, as a designer, to have the First Lady as a client," Basso says almost reverentially.

It's also very important for Basso to make his designs available to a wider audience -- meaning, the little people who can't afford to pay upwards of $100,000 per garment. Yes, his best-selling designs are sable coats priced from $25,000 to $100,000, plus broadtail lamb suits priced at $14,000 to $25,000 and less expensive but still extravagant accessories like stoles and shawls made of a luxury fabric and trimmed with sable.

For the past seven years, he has marketed a much more approachable collection of faux furs on the QVC tv shopping channel. He sells a more moderately priced fur collection, called Dennis by DB, at Maximilian salons in Bloomingdale's stores. And he has launched a line of high-end faux fur coats to retail between $250 and $700 in the Nordstrom catalog this fall.

Basso says, "I think part of my success has been that, I'm very focused on what clients want. I follow the ready-to-wear collections and create outerwear that complements what women are wearing each season, but I'm not trendy. When a woman buys a fur from me, this is a substantial purchase, and she doesn't want it to go out of style next year. So there's a very practical side to my designs also."

Yes, Dennis Basso set out to build a sparkling career and live well, and he's accomplished that. But I'll tell you what draws most people to Dennis. It's his sincerity.

After we wrapped up a recent interview in his showroom, Dennis asked me if I would like to stay and watch his copy of the video presentation given for him earlier this year, when he was honored by the Children's Hearing Institute for his fund-raising efforts on its behalf. He had to have a VCR brought out of a back room and hooked up to a television, in order for us to view this five-minute tape. But it was important to him. On the tape, Mrs. Clinton, who was the honorary chairperson of this event, called Basso "one of the nation's leading designers," and Dennis wanted me to hear that first-hand.

Yes, the tape was impressive. Who wouldn't be impressed, to hear the First Lady also call Basso "My friend and a real humanitarian," and then wish him Happy Birthday on behalf of herself and the president of the United States?