Party of the Week: Lily Cole breaks the ice at Somerset House

The actress and supermodel Lily Cole, wearing a white Chanel coat, whizzed around Somerset House's ice rink for its VIP opening party in London on Monday night.

First she switched on the Christmas tree lights in the courtyard of the neo-classical building, where current exhibitions include paintings by Frank Auerbach.

Luckily there were no emergencies; last year, the TV presenter Tania Bryer fractured her wrist at the party.

The film director Gurinder Chadha skated with her children, along with the model Amber Le Bon, daughter of Duran Duran's Simon Le Bon. The TV presenter Trinny Woodall, wearing a Russian fur hat, also zipped by.

The actor Mathew Horne, TV presenter Ben Fogle, Holby City actress Tina Hobley and an array of fashion designers – Ozwald Boateng, Paul Smith, Gareth Pugh and Julien Macdonald – sipped champagne and mulled wine in the warmth of the skate bar, overlooking the rink.

The architect Nigel Coates arrived in an old-fashioned outfit of black hat and coat that perfectly recreated Sir Henry Raeburn's portrait of a skater, thought to be Reverend Robert Walker (1755-1808), skating on a frozen loch near Edinburgh.

The party was thrown by Tiffany & Co for the ice rink's tenth anniversary and Lily Allen's ex-boyfriend, the DJ Seb Chew, played an hour-and-a-half set.

Cole stayed behind well after her duties were over to skate until 9pm with her friends.