FashionEtc.com April 26th, 2024

Save Venice is a fun benefit.

Usually, "fun benefit" is an oxymoron. You can serve all the jumbo shrimp you want, even the wisest fool knows that an evening of endless boring speeches can lead to a minor crisis.

Save Venice, however, is a seriously fun evening, and last night that was especially true. Benefit organizers, there are the lessons to be learned here.

Save Venice is always a masked ball. People go all out to find or design over the top creations, and the best of them win prizes.

"Did you see the guy with the bunny ears?" asked the evening's judge, Patrick McMullan. "I'm trying to find him."

Jennifer Creel made her own mask out of feathers, pearls and crystals. "This is such a beautiful event," she said. "People go out of their way to really dress up, more so than other parties."

The decor, brilliantly executed by Nicky Balestrieri of ExtraExtra, reflected the theme for the evening, "A Night On The Lido," with huge blue and white beach tents set up as the bars on the balcony at 583 Park. The champagne was Perrier Jouet—a huge, and welcome, step up from headache-inducing prosecco.

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Valentino is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year with a redesign of several boutiques, including its Beverly Hills location.

This called for a celebration, LA style, a star-studded cocktail party with camera flashes going into overdrive. Kim Kardashian, Minka Kelly, Abigail Spencer, Jessica Szohr, Jason Lewis, Ellie Kemper, Ciara and many more came to admire the new David Chipperfield creation on Rodeo Drive.

The store combines old and new elements, with the feel of a palazzo or a private home, using opulent materials such as American walnut, mirrored glass, and Venetian terrazzo—the perfect setting to show off Valentino's spectacular collections.

"I think Valentino is very chic," Kardashian, wearing Lela Rose, told FashionEtc. "I love the new collection with the studs—it's very feminine at the same time. I've been a fan for a long time."

Nicky Hilton, who co-hosted the festivities along with Maria Bell, Gia Coppola, Helen Kinnear, Nathalie Love, Minnie Mortimer, Shannon Rotenberg, and Julia Sorkin, looked stunning in head-to-toe Valentino.

"I just got back from the show in Paris. The clothes are so beautiful, timeless and chic. It just gets better and better," said Hilton, who recently launched an app called Trendable, an Instagram for fashion.

"I am totally honored to host and am so happy to be part of this celebration," said Mortimer, a designer herself. "Valentino shows an unparalleled fashion genius and most importantly I adore wearing the clothes!"

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Our educational system is in trouble. Anyone who saw Waiting For Superman is aware of just how broken it is. Detachment, the new film starring Adrien Brody, gives a fictionalized look at this problem, while also focusing on the toll this takes on teachers who are dedicated to their craft and have witnessed the unraveling of their particular school. Adrien Brody plays a substitute teacher who tries to help his students and a young prostitute that he finds on the street. Brody's character can only go so far with these teens; he has a problem connecting because of his own traumas.

Jane Rosenthal of Tribeca film praised Brody's performance at the Cinema Society Screening, sponsored by American Express.

"Adrien's performance is extraordinary," said Rosenthal, wearing The Row and Sidney Garber jewelry. "When you look at what's going in the educational system and how kids are learning, the frustration that's going on, the fact that this is the United States and this is the best we have to offer really sheds light into the places where we should be looking more carefully, like the public school system."

"There is a quality to this movie that is incredibly raw. I'm happy to be part of something that everyone so enthusiastically wanted to participate in even though it was really low budget," said Lucy Liu, wearing Chadwick Bell. "Anything that we try to do in entertainment is meant to touch somebody or move them, and I think this movie definitely has that impact."

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"Attire—Bright and Bold" said the invitation to the 2012 Museum Dance at the American Museum of Natural History. Luckily, bright and bold is big this season.

I slipped on a form-fitting, lavender, sequined Theia gown, stopped by the Museum of the City of New York's Winter Ball first, said hello to Mark Gilbertson, Dennis Basso and Michael Cominotto, and ran into Amy Fine Collins, stunning in a long sequined Alice & Olivia column.

We made our way to the Museum of Natural History together. The theme was "Bright Young Things," to celebrate the upcoming exhibit, Creatures of Light: Nature's Bioluminescence. Drinks were served in luminescent glasses, an unusual and fun touch. The crowd was particularly good-looking, young, and fashion-savvy, including Co-Chairmen Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, Actress Taylor Gildersleeve, and Vice-Chairs Blair and Faizle Husain and Sarah Arison.

"We love the museum, said Steve Sadove, CEO of Saks Fifth Avenue, the evening's sponsor. "We're about giving back to the community, we're about education. We're standing underneath the whale that I loved when I was a kid. Saks is one of the great New York institutions, as is the museupem.

"We're thrilled to support the Museum of Natural History, to help them raise money to fulfill their mission of scientific research, and bringing science to life as both an educational and entertaining place for people to visit. It's a wonderful institution," said Co-Chairman Greg Kwiat.

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