Long an avid supporter of Haiti’s own resources and the potential they hold for not only the country but also for designers who want to make fabulous products, Donna’s Urban Zen studio was filled with decorations, art and artefacts, all sourced from Haiti itself. Lucky enough to be one of the first to arrive, we were able to take in the full raw drama of the papier mâché lights hanging from the ceiling, the Haitian art adorning the walls, the pottery and candles scattered across every surface. One to put her money where her mouth is, Karan has already started producing items in the country, making jewellery on show on the night. As she puts it, the aim is “to help Haiti help itself by utilizing and organizing its artisans, natural resources and production potential to create business models that can be properly marketed and distributed throughout the US and Europe.” As we stood surrounded by the dramatic scenes that such natural resources can create, it seemed a mission that should be entirely possible.

One Million Hearts: Fashion for Haiti

One Million Hearts is a collaboration between Urban Zen, the CFDA and eBay, involving nearly 150 designers including Ralph Lauren, Vera Wang, Prabal Gurung, Tory Burch and Kotur. Each of us has customised a locally crafted papier mâché heart to make for beautiful, one off decorations full of meaning and purpose. All the Hearts for Haiti will be available to buy at auction on eBay between April 22 and May 2, 2013.

Please visit www.ebay.com/fashionforhaiti for more information.

Guests arrived to the industrial space to be greeted by a jazz quartet and lashings of champagne, courtesy of Moet, FilmAid’s partners for the evening. With the great and the glamorous out in force (many carrying Kotur, we are pleased to report,) it was a star studded affair. Sophie Ellis Bextor, in town to sing at the Gala’s after party, paired her stunning outfit with Kotur’s special FilmAid clutch, as did Josie Ho and Uma Thurman.

Clearwater Bay studios were transformed for the evening, filled with huge long tables adorned with flowers (and yes, more champagne,) for a delicious dinner topped off with the most sensational deserts (most definitely one of our personal highlights.) The auction raised $3.5million Hong Kong dollars, all of which will go towards the charity’s brilliant work using the power of film to bring lifesaving information and much needed hope to refugees around the world. Lots such as tickets the Roland Garros tennis tournament, a heli-skiing trip and a series of Moet magnums signed by Uma Thurman and delivered with a kiss, proved predictably popular.

After dinner, it was all about the after party, where dancing continued until 3 am. Guests left with a specially designed FilmAid Asia tote – a goody bag filled with Santa Maria Novella cologne, Aesop products, Laduree chocolates, C Wonder speakers, Moet and much, much more. Its was a fittingly glamorous finish to an extremely glamorous evening.

Click through our gallery above to see pictures from the night.

Kotur for FilmAid Asia

Throughout the night, Kotur’s FilmAid Pearce clutches were on sale. The two special editions of our Pearce minaudière have been designed especially for the charity, with all proceeds from their sales going directly to FilmAid Asia and are available to buy on our website here. 

We’re rather proud of our new association with this charity. Founded in 1999 during the Balkan crisis by award-winning producer Caroline Baron (Capote, Monsoon Wedding), FilmAid uses the power of film and media to transcend language and literacy, bringing life-saving information, psychological relief and much-needed hope to refugees and other communities in need around the globe. With strong support from both Hollywood and the humanitarian communities, the charity has brought critical information, training and empowerment programs to more than two million people worldwide.

To how our support for this truly worthwhile cause, we’e launched our FilmAid clutch, a newly designed and vamped up version of our classic Pearce bag. Coming in gold and gun metal grey, it’s available exclusively on our website, and all net proceeds from it’s sales will go direct to the charity.  As seen here on Reaser, who wore hers to the premiere that same night, it’s most definitely red carpet worthy, and so rather FilmAid fitting. You can find it here.

1. KOTUR for Operation Smile

This year, we teamed up with Gillian and Lydia Hearst to support Operation Smile, a charity that they are ambassadors for and I’m of the board of in Hong Kong, and that provides free surgeries to repair cleft palates, cleft lips and facial deformities for children around the globe. Our own ‘Smile’ minaudiere comes gold plated with a faceted crystal clasp and our signature brocade lining. 100% of the net proceeds for it go directly to Operation Smile. This is fashion that definitely feels good.

Kotur Smile bag, $395 from www.koturltd.com

2. Warby Parker Glasses

“Buy a pair, give a pair”

Set up by four friends, named after Jack Kerouac characters and founded on the simple ‘buy a pair, give a pair,’ principle, Warby Parker’s collection of retro inspired, effortlessly cool eyewear is where to place your smart sunglass money. Both regular eyewear and sunglasses come in easy shapes, logo free, and with the added benefit of knowing that, when you purchase your pair, someone else out there in the world who probably needs them more gets the bonus of a pair of glasses, too.

www.warbyparker.com

3. CFDA & VOGUE online auction for Sandy Relief

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, forces all over the world have mobilized to help support the relief effort. Should you wish to contribute, Vogue and the CFDA have come up with a pretty enticing way to do so. In an online auction just launched at charitybuzz.com, they have called on their friends to offer amazing prizes, all of which of you can bid on in the knowledge that the total proceeds will to go Hurricane Sandy’s relief efforts. Tickets to the 2013 Met Gala, shopping sprees with Tory Burch and Michael Kors, a year’s supply of bags from Net-a-porter, a Bruce Weber print and a week in Tommy Hilfiger’s villa in Mustique barely scratch the surface of what’s on offer here in one of the most compelling arguments we’ve ever seen to get involved and get giving.

www.charitybuzz.com

In collaboration with Operation Smile Ambassadors, actress and model Lydia Hearst and magazine editor Gillian Hearst Simonds, KOTUR has created this chic gold-plated clutch, with faceted crystal clasp and signature brocade lining, to be sold exclusively online at WWW.SHOPKOTUR.COM

“Our aim was to create a clutch that would embrace the same
optimistic and happy spirit, to bring a smile both to those who carry it and to the many children who will benefit from the proceeds”

Operation Smile will receive 100% of the net proceeds to give new smiles to children around the world, transforming their lives and restoring their hope for a better future.

KOTUR are delighted to offer complimentary shipping with the purchase of this bag.

The red carpet themed cocktail party also launched the new Holiday 2011 collection in store and was held in the super-chic new Pacific Place location.

Guests all went home with personalized snakeskin coin purses and we were able to make a significant donation to Operation Smile from the proceed of our one-night-only crystal monogramming service.

Thanks again to Harvey Nichols and to all who came along to show their support… here’s to another 5 years!

Yana Peel has a brilliant ability to gather people together around interesting ideas, hence Intelligence Squared Asia (IQ2) – her own interpretation of ‘intellectual entertainment’. These lively, topical debates are frequently sold-out well in advance. No ticket? Log on to the IQ2 site to view the video.

Philanthropy is paramount to Yana’s innovative Outset Contemporary Art Fund, as co-founder she connects private funding and public arts to bring an often elitist medium to a wider audience, promoting modern art for the masses. An active advocate of the arts, Yana also chairs Para/Site, a Hong Kong non-profit arts organization, and sits on various boards including the Tate International Council, Victoria Foundation and the British Fashion Council, for whom she is a worthy ambassador of British fashion, and young designers in Asia.

Just a final note of admiration for Yana; Art for Baby, the best-selling book featuring work by contemporary artists was produced by Yana in the weeks immediately following the birth of her second child. With four children of my own, this post-partum productivity really humbles me. Needless to say the book also donated its profits to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC)

Art patron, philanthropist, author, mom and muse – I just don’t know how she does it…

KOTUR: Name your desert island essentials?
Yana Peel: Ipod mixed by mimi brown, The New Yorker and cashew nuts

K: How would your female friends describe your style?
Y: Individual, for better or for worse

K: What’s the most treasured item in your wardrobe?
Y: The sheepskin in which i emigrated from russia, aged 3

K: Is there anything in your wardrobe you should get rid of but can’t?
Y: Starred Chanel disco jumpsuit that my daughter is one day destined to love… or loathe

K: What do you never leave home without?
Y: My conscience

KOTUR: Hot date night with your husband, what do you wear?
Y: Alaia and lip gloss

K: When home alone, what do you wear?
Y: My bluetooth earpiece and a facemask by Rodial

K: What do you wear to bed?
Y: Depends who is asking

KOTUR: You’re the fashion police for a day, what do you ban?
Yana Peel: Self-consciousness

K: How old is too old for a mini?
Y: As soon as you start asking the question, it’ s too late

K: Have you ever worn anything you are now embarrassed by?
Y: Without doubt, but life is a journey not a destination

K: How high is too high a heel?
Y: Never, when your husband is 2 meters tall

K: What is your most recent purchase?
Y: Mary Katrantzou – for me, and the Victoria and Albert museum

K: What quality do you most admire in a person?
Y: Dignity. And a wicked sense of humor…

Thank you Yana Peel

Best known in the fashion world as the star of cult television series Gossip Girl, Kelly’s on-screen persona, Lily Van Der Woodsen has often graced the screen with KOTUR in hand. In reality, with her own sartorial style much akin to that of her Upper East side character, Kelly goes on to prove that style is no substitute for substance – she clearly possesses both.

Multifaceted – actress, philanthropist, blogger, Mom – Kelly Rutherford is my muse this month…

KOTUR: How would your female friends describe your style?
Kelly: Classic.

KOTUR: What’s the most treasured item in your wardrobe?
Kelly: T shirt. Start there and build.

KOTUR: What do you wear to bed?
Kelly: Simple white above the knee nightgowns from La Perla or Hanro.

KOTUR: What’s in your make-up bag?
Kelly: Make up

KOTUR: Do you have a beauty secret?
Kelly: It’s a secret

KOTUR: You’re the fashion police for a day, what do you ban?
Kelly: The fashion police…

KOTUR: How old is too old for a mini?
Kelly: Never too old as long as its on a tennis court.

KOTUR: Have you ever worn anything you are now embarrassed by?
Kelly: Of course.

KOTUR: Have you ever worn anything you now regret?
Kelly: Of course.

KOTUR: Can you judge a book by its cover?
Kelly: Sometimes.

KOTUR: What are your bad habits?
Kelly: I am learning to not only be nice… but to be effective.

KOTUR: Do you have a cheap thrill?
Kelly: Window-shopping on Madison Avenue.

KOTUR: What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
Kelly: Focus on what you want instead of what you don’t want.

KOTUR: What’s your favorite smell?
Kelly: Rose.

KOTUR: What’s your idea of a great holiday?
Kelly: Traveling with my kids and seeing all of the great wonders of the world.

KOTUR: What are you most proud of?
Kelly: Being a mother.

KOTUR: What are you least proud of?
Kelly: Making uninformed decisions.

KOTUR: Yes or no to a nip and a tuck.
Kelly: I am definitely Pro choice on that issue

KOTUR: How would you like to be remembered?
Kelly: As someone who was an advocate for women and children.

KOTUR: Do you have a favorite KOTUR bag?
Kelly: All of them. Margo Hicks brocade is great!