Just like that, the stylemakers from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy animated a couple of hundred Dallas swells Wednesday night. All the Fab Five had to do was walk into the couture salon at the downtown Neiman Marcus and start pressing the well-tanned flesh.

Snap, snap. There were probably more digital cameras in the room than thongs.

Michelle Swayze, a marketing coordinator at Comcast, was psyched about her encounter with Queer Eye's fashion maven, Carson Kressley. He looked her up and down, checking out her dress, then signaled approval. It made her night. "These boys are beautiful. They really are," Ms. Swayze swooned.

Carson and Co. are in town for three weeks to shoot episodes of the Bravo cable hit, their first trip outside metro New York since the series debuted last summer. The invitation-only affair at Neiman's was their coming-out party. "You're cute," a guy told Carson. "Not as cute as you," he said back.

No, you're cuter. OK, we're all really cute.

Guests were greeted at the entrance by a pair of hunks in high-fashion wife beaters and colorful scarves. Footage from the series played on the store walls while a DJ spun techno. "I've got to get my picture taken with them," an early arriver said to her friends. No problem. As soon as they swooped in a fashionable 40 minutes late, the Fab Five were mobbed – but politely. After making their way through the impromptu receiving line, they were escorted to a pink-lit bar, where they posed for pictures with fans.

Ted Allen, Queer Eye's wine and food guru, drank a Heineken. It seemed incongruous. "I'm drinking a beer and a glass of wine," he said. "That's classier."

Dean Crawford, a 34-year-old Dallas homebuilder, met Ted two years ago at a business conference in Chicago, and Ted had called to invite him to the party. Mr. Crawford said he didn't know what to expect when he first saw the show but was pleasantly surprised. He almost came to tears when they made over an elderly widower and gave him a dating life again. "Say what you will, I think it's great to laugh along with gay people. It breaks down barriers."

Meanwhile, Nikki Micek, a 32-year-old cosmetics-company sales manager, was also breaking through with her friendly attitude and a T-shirt that read: "Please don't feed the models." But she said not to take it literally. "Taco Bell is my best friend." She also offered that she wasn't wearing underwear. There you go – one less thong.

Nearby a little girl was equally up front with the message on her shirt: "Boys stink." Of course, she wasn't talking about the Fab Five.