The fashion set is so thinly stretched during New York Fashion Week that getting a crowd to turn out for a charity fundraiser can be a challenge. Last night, squeezed in between Ryan Roche’s presentation and the Alexander Wang show, Doutzen Kroes and Tiffany Co.’s CEO Frederic Cumenal decided to brave the odds. In the newly renovated penthouse atop the Standard East Village, the two hosted a launch party for the #KnotOnMyPlanet campaign, an effort to bring awareness to elephant poaching and raise funds for the Elephant Crisis Fund.
A serious A-list group swung by the fete: There was Leonardo DiCaprio, Naomi Campbell, Grace Coddington, Glamour editor in chief Cindi Leive, Martha Hunt, Laura Love, Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele, Sofía Sanchez de Betak, Constance Jablonski, and Karlie Kloss, to name a few. “I’ve got a busy week, plus I was just at the U.S. Open,” said Jablonski, “But, of course, I was going to stop by tonight.”
The cause isn’t as far-removed from fashion as one might think. “Elephants have always been important in fashion, but always in the background,” said Kroes. “Remember Avedon; remember Iman. But now we hope to bring elephants to the foreground, and the fact that people would take time, especially this week, to show up in support, it really means so much.” Just as Kroes said that, fireworks started to go off in the distance behind her. She smiled, and said, “Ah, finally, our fireworks! We did those, too—just kidding.” But between the rooftop sunset, the balmy late-summer breeze, and the top-notch turnout, adding fireworks into the mix wouldn’t have been such a stretch for what was already a near-flawless cocktail party.
