This is what it feels like when love is in the air — love for community, for philanthropy, and, of course, for fashion. At Tuesday night’s Love Ball III, it was all that and so much more thanks to our co-host Susanne Bartsch, our Master of Ceremonies Billy Porter, the judges, the Ballroom houses, the performers and a crowd that arrived at Gotham Hall ready to roar.

“You are so beautiful,” Bartsch said, looking at the scene of ballroom kids, drag queens, creatures of the night, fashion luminaries and other VIPs who came out to the fundraiser for the CFDA-Vogue HIV/AIDS Fund at the New York Community Trust at Gotham Hall. “We are here to celebrate how far we have come and how much more we have to do to eradicate this f*cking disease!”

“I am going to try to put my glasses on with this bonnet,” Porter said, in his first of five fabulous outfits, “Let’s see if it works…I see some pretty faces out there now I have my glasses on. You all ready to have a ball???”

We were and so was everyone else in a room that included Steven Klein, Victor Alfaro, Jason Wu, Kevin Carrigan, and more – all clapping, stomping and shouting at each of the performances in the night’s six categories.

The wins – judged by the likes of Mary J. Blige, Aquaria, Kevin Aviance, David and Phillipe Blond, Nicky Hilton-Rothschild, Marc Jacobs and Char Defrancesco, Amanda Lepore, Teyana Taylor, Dita von Teese, and Zaldy – were more than deserving of their custom artist trophies handed to them by Dapper Dan at the end of the night.

Roger Superstar came out on top in Head to Toe, the self-made couture category, with a Lucy Dodd trophy. Orlando took home a Tony Oursler trophy for Hair Spectacular, which featured hair stylists pushing their artform, while Yasmine Petty stunned in Beauty and Face, bringing illusion through make-up in a category sponsored by M∙A∙C Cosmetics. Petty took home the KAWS trophy. Invertebrate won a Kenny Scharf trophy for the Move to the Groove dance category, and Charlene topped the Show Stoppers performance art category, and received a Raúl de Nieves trophy.

Leave it to the Legendary Houses to bring the house down. The finale battle between the houses of Balenciaga, Ebony, LaBeija, Mizrahi, Mugler, and Xtravaganza was EVERYTHING – with the latter taking home the Jack Pierson trophy.

“The fight against AIDS,” said Jack Mizrahi, “is never over until everybody is cured.” Hear, hear.

Then, Porter performed his song Love Yourself, ending the night on the perfect note.

LOVE BALL III was made possible by the generous support of corporate sponsors including M∙A∙C Cosmetics, Lyft and SKYY® Vodka.