The Kering Foundation’s annual Caring for Women dinner, a star-studded, high-fashion party that’s been dubbed the MET Gala for social causes, returned to New York Fashion Week for its third year. On Monday night, the founders Salma Hayek Pinault and her husband, Francois Henri Pinault, The chairman and CEO of Kering, the luxury fashion empire that owns Gucci, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Saint Laurent and Alexander McQueen among other famous brands, has partnered with leaders from Hollywood, fashion, arts, social activism and philanthropy with the goal of addressing and ending gender-based violence.
“I’m really excited to be here tonight because this is something that’s really important to me in terms of eliminating gender-based violence,” he said. Jessica Chastain, a first-time guest at the dinner, held at Pool in New York. “As I was getting ready for the red carpet, I was thinking about it and feeling so lucky and blessed to be able to be a part of an event that hopefully will be fun, I think it will be, but will also bring positive change to the world.”
Other guests in attendance included Kim Kardashian, Leonardo DiCaprio, Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom, Donatella Versace, Matthew McConaughey, Julianne Moore, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, And Jeff Bezos, All help raise funds for nonprofits working to end violence and improve the lives of survivors. Viola Davis gave an emotional and inspirational nine-minute speech about her and her mother’s traumatic experiences: When she was just 8 years old, Davis was chased home from school every day by a group of boys who threw bricks at her and made racist comments.
“Little Viola, daughter of Mai Alice, “I always run even when my feet don’t move. Freedom, for her, she wanted that burden lifted off her back. The burden of the trauma of watching my mother being beaten over and over again, watching her being pushed into poverty because of lack of education and domestic violence,” Davis told the crowd. “Freedom for little Viola looked like protection from sexual predators who took advantage of the fact that this poor dark-skinned, chocolate girl was worthless.” The Oscar winner said “positive love” and “radical love” could break the cycle of intergenerational abuse. “We need it like water. Love protects you, love makes you feel safe. That would be the most beautiful world.”
During dinner, the host King Gayle, Kardashian has been everywhere. Vanity Fair found her sharing a deep conversation with Bezos and his fiancée. Lauren Sanchez. She met Dakota Johnson to chat, pose for pictures together and talk with Davis and her husband Julius Tennon was an American writer. Sitting nearby Naomi Watts, Who Will Star With Kardashian In The Upcoming Legal Drama? All is fair on Hulu. The two never rehearsed any scenes or acted together, but they did meet. Watts said she admires Kardashian’s strong work ethic.
“I love that she’s always trying new and different things and seems to do a lot of them—or all of them—very well,” says Watts. Vanity Fair during cocktail hour. “I was impressed by her—very impressed. Anyone who works hard deserves credit. She’s clearly a hard-working woman.”
Watts knows how to work hard. She was nominated for an Emmy for her role as Babe Paley in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans; her new movie Friend with Bill Murray just premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival; and she’s written a book about menopause titled I dare say, will be released in January.
“It’s an exciting time. I feel blessed and lucky, and I’ve worked really hard,” she said. Vanity Fair. “So I wouldn’t ignore that. It’s a lot of things coming together at once. There’s never one thing that changes everything.”
Near Watts’s table sat Ricky Martin, who attended dinner with his friend, the Spanish fashion model and actress Esther Canada. The Grammy-winning singer is focusing on her acting career and is set to begin filming the second season of Royal palm tree. He has signed on to another project that will begin next summer. “It’s time to rediscover the era of acting. I started acting when I was 15 and then obviously music took over and I had to let myself be seduced by the power of music, but acting has always been there for me,” Martin said. “My life is about entertaining and telling stories through music or as an actor. But I think I’m a great storyteller, so let’s do that through acting.”
DiCaprio, dressed casually and wearing a baseball cap, attended the second annual Women’s Care Dinner with his friend Aviv Nevo, a venture capitalist. The Oscar winner spent the first half of dinner in a long and animated conversation with Who is Lenny Kravitz? He then spoke to Johnson and then Hayek Pinault.
Perry, in a festive mood, sat at a long table with her husband, Bloom, plus Kerry Washington, Lindsay Lohan, And Linda Evangelista is an American actress. Throughout the evening, she cheered loudly for the speakers and raised her glasses with those seated nearby. Perry also created a bit of humor during the live auction when she got into a bidding war with another guest for a one-of-a-kind Alexander McQueen clutch and fashion experience, but Perry lost to that guest, who bid $100,000.
That amount contributed to a total of $3 million raised, with proceeds going to three organizations: Girl Effect, It’s On Us, and the National Network to End Domestic Violence.
British singer-songwriter Raye closed the night with a performance of “Fly Me to the Moon,” at which point Perry and Bloom got up to record on their phones. “I loved your performance,” Johnson told Raye, as she left to go home.
