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David Brand with students.
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| Last Thursday at the New York Hilton, the members of One Hundred Black Men, Inc, held their 30th annual benefit gala “For Restoring Health & Building Bridges.” They honored Dr. Kenneth Olden, Founding Dean, School of Public Health, City University of New York, Hunter College and Mark Wagar, President of Empire BlueCross BlueShield. R. Donahue Peebles was Honorary Chairman of the evening and co-chairs were Paul Busby and Craig Simmons. |
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| Photographs by Ann Watt |
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| Last Wednesday night down at 609 West 29th Street, Jake Bright, Keri Ingvarsson and Mia Morgan presented “Her Name is Zelda,” an evening “celebrating Ms. Zelda Kaplan.” It was billed as “A night of appreciation event for 93-year-old philanthropist, Africa enthusiast and nightlife matriarch Zelda Kaplan” and benefiting Alicia Keys’ non-profit of choice, Keep A Child Alive. Keep a Child Alive [1] provides first class AIDS care and support for orphans, food for people affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India. There was live entertainment provided by African band Maxidenkalu as well as “international beats” by DJAKE as well as a live performance by Army of Me. There was also an art auction. |
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| Photographs by PatrickMcMullan.com [2] |
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| Two weeks ago at Clodagh Design at 670 Broadway, Clodagh hosted the investiture of Meera Gandhi as a Centenary Councillor of the UK's Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID). She was invested by RNID's Centenary Director, Philip Bonn who flew over from England for the occasion. The RNID was founded by Leo Bonn, (who was deaf) in 1911, the father of WW 1 hero, the late Major Walter Basil Louis Bonn, DSO, MC; and the Founder was the grandfather of the late Major Christopher Leslie Leo Bonn. |
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| RNID is currently the UK 's largest charity, and HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, has been its Patron for over 50 years; while The Right Honourable Lord Ashley of Stoke is President. Chief Executive, Ms. Jackie Ballard, is a former Liberal Member of Parliament. Meera Gandhi who currently lives in New York, London and in Hong Kong will host a centennial event at her London home in June 2011 for RNID. She recently founded The Giving Back Foundation and has completed a film called "Giving Back" featuring global names like Kerry Kennedy, Deborah Norville, Clodagh, Vikram Gandhi, Steven Rockefeller and Viveck Vaswani. ‘Her motto and that of the foundation is "We are to the universe only as much as we give back to it." The foundation will release the film on DVD at the end of May as well as a CD and coffee table book, with body and bath products to follow -- 100 per cent of proceeds going to the foundation. |
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| Photographs by PatrickMcMullan.com [3] |
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Fashion Postscript. After thirty-some Fashion Shows, Presentations and related events, this season’s finale left me with a blur of fabrics, textures and styles. So to clarify I took a weekend off right after, to see what remained memorable.
It was held at the historic Clubhouse Theater – one of those hidden enclaves frequented by those in-the-know. On Saturday I attended the dynamic performance ‘Forgotten” at the Irish Arts Center, written by, and starring an extraordinary talent Pat Kinevane, and produced by my friend Georganne Aldrich Heller – whose many credits include serving as Cultural Director of Manhattan for five years. Back to fashion: The best new collection, (in my opinion, of course) by Elisa Palomino haunts me still. Her strong pervasive aesthetic - from the Oriental décor through three divas singing variations on Chinese opera, to her fanciful Asian and vintage inspired beautiful attire. Her attention to detail in fabrication, through unusual pairings, and innovative hair and make-up, remains is memorable. Elisa did not come out of “nowhere.” Her fashion background is impressive. She was the designer behind Moschino’s “Cheap & Chic Collection,” was recruited by Jimmy Galanos to work for his label at Dior, worked as Studio Director at Cavalli and became VP of Design at Diane Von Furstenberg. She and Alexander McQueen were classmates. So all ye Fashionistas – eyes open – for the ascendance of this rising STAR – Elisa Palomino. |
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Vintage Asian setting at the General Society of Mechanics |
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| The Collection ... |
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| Designer Elisa Palomino (right) midst applause & Models ... |
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| And then there is Ralph Rucci. In his joint exhibition “Collaboration,” with artist Hirito Rakusho, he once again proved to have that “Midas Touch.” His beautiful gold and metallic-leafed paintings were as finely crafted and luminous as his fashion collections – which yours truly has followed for decades. Surrounded by a bevy of high-visibility admirers, Ralph certainly seemed to much more happily relaxed than ever seen at one of his Fashion Shows. — Jill Lynn for NYSD www.jilllynne.com [4] |
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Ralph Rucci and Hiroto Rakusho, Collaboration |
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Patrick MacDonald and Merle Ginsberg |
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Vogue Editor-At-Large Andre Leon Talley, pontificating to Collaborations artist, Hirito Rakusho. |
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Michael J. Maiarecki witha friend and Kevin Alexander |
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Geoffrey Bradfield, Ralph Rucci, and Roric Tobin |
Click here [5] for NYSD Contents |