Kim Kardashian, a Snoop Dogg Performance, and More Moments From Inside the Baby2Baby Gala
To paint the picture, the Baby2Baby gala, held annually in Los Angeles, could easily be called the West Coast’s Met Gala. There simply aren’t many events that draw in the sheer volume and caliber of guests—among them, Kim Kardashian, Olivia Wilde, Demi Lovato, Sofia Richie Grainge, and Zoe Saldana. It’s a fashionable evening by nature (feathered Oscar de la Renta gowns and Chanel dresses are on showcase) but rather than an event held in celebration of fashion and film (as is customary in L.A.), it’s one put together by co-CEOs Kelly Sawyer Patricof and Norah Weinstein, with the help of sponsors Paul Mitchell, City National Bank and Volvo Car USA, to celebrate—and fund—Baby2Baby’s work in serving 1 million children across all 50 states. The single night alone is responsible for raising the majority of Baby2Baby’s annual operation funding. Of course, it’s always done so alongside ample food and cocktails, and an epic music performance.
“The two of us started Baby2Baby twelve years ago from listening,” Sawyer Patricof told Vogue. “We wanted to solve a problem in the area of child poverty, and rather than assuming or presuming or guessing what that was, we went and spoke to organizations on the ground doing the work, and we asked them.” Identifying diapers as the largest need for underserved moms, the pair have since given out 170 million in total, becoming not only the largest donor of diapers across all organizations but also the first to manufacture their own, doing so at 80% less of the cost of purchasing them.
This year, disaster relief became among Baby2Baby’s top priorities, responding, for example, to the Maui wildfires and ultimately sending 600,000 items to Hawaii, or 50 million items to children across its disaster relief program in total. “We had actually made a delivery of diapers, wipes, and other hygiene items to the Hawaii Diaper Bank the day before the fires broke out,” Weinstein says. “And we felt so fortunate about that because in the midst of the disaster when there was so much chaos and so many organizations from around the world were trying to help the families on Maui, we already had those there.”
Simultaneously, Sawyer Patricof and Weinstein are also focused on a new pilot program launched with the White House and HHS that will distribute 3,000 newborn and maternal kits across Arkansas, Louisiana, and New Mexico (states with the highest poverty and maternal mortality rates), with a goal of offering the kits to any new mom in need countrywide. Funding the lofty goal is the current focus—enter the gala.
Held at the Pacific Design Center, the evening—during which over $12 million was raised—had much in store for its some few hundred guests. First, a cocktail and mingling hour under a disco ball-lit room and a silent auction which offered a Paris Fashion Week Trip with Chanel and a private dinner with Los Angeles chef Evan Funke on the docket. For everyone who didn’t snag the $20,000 treat, the gala’s dinner situation was the next best thing, with famed chefs Jon and Vinny curating the best of their peers in one room, restaurants such as Funke, Mr. Chow, and Kato each with their own market-style station guests could drop by as they pleased. Those who stopped by the Goop Kitchen station were in for a surprise, with Gwyneth Paltrow behind the booth herself, serving up chilled oysters.
Up on stage, Kim Kardashian opened the sit-down portion of the evening, Zooey Deschanel hyped up a bidding war, and Channing Tatum, who introduced the night’s honoree Salma Hayek Pinault (“I have so much respect for this organization, and I don’t have respect for a lot of organizations,” Hayek Pinault would later say), joked that the actress’s iconic From Dusk Til Dawn scene ruined tequila for him. Later, sister duo Sofia and Nicole Richie prepped the crowd for Snoop Dogg’s performance of all his classics before everyone dispersed for the after-party.
Phillip Faraone/Getty Images1/17Salma Hayek Pinault
Phillip Faraone/Getty Images2/17Gwyneth Paltrow