The Lincoln Center Corporate Fund Honors Stella McCartney
November 2014. New York City, NY, Alice Tully Hall at The Lincoln Center
After their highly successful inaugural gala fundraiser in 2013, the Lincoln Center Corporate Fund chose to honor cultural icon and internationally recognized fashion designer, Stella McCartney, with their Women’s Leadership Award.
Lincoln Center Corporate Fund once again turned to us to design and produce all aspects of the evening.
Held at the prestigious Alice Tully Hall, the evening began with two VIP cocktail receptions with hedge walls lining the entrance pathway. The hedges served both fashion and function, accentuating the “English Garden” design theme, while concealing the 40-table dinner reception that was to follow the stage program.
Stella’s friends who could not be in attendance including Bono, Chrissie Hynde, Kate Winslet, Gwen Stefani, Quincy Jones, Amy Poehler, Reese Witherspoon and Doris Day, gave heartfelt video tributes.
Chelsea Handler surprised everyone by submitting her video in which she claimed to be too cheap to purchase the plane ticket to New York and then appeared onstage as the evening’s host.
The program’s second act featured a sit-down with Stella and Jerry Seinfeld in which the comedian interviewed her as only he could, touching on the important industry issues such as the “shorts epidemic for men” and “angry-faced models”.
Seinfeld then introduced the presenter of the Women’s Leadership Award following their conversation—Sir Paul McCartney. Sir Paul flew all the way from Brazil that morning to surprise his daughter on stage.
The program concluded with a musical performance by Dhani Harrison, son of George Harrison, whose acoustic rendition of Love of My Life, a favorite of his “Big Sister”, Stella, set up the finale, which summed up the tone for the entire night. The walls which previous to that had been the backdrop to the “English Parlor” design treatment were quickly rolled away to reveal a full band and 21-piece orchestra who backed Dhani as they performed Live and Let Die to the delight of guests and Sir Paul himself.
The event raised $1.6 million for the Fund, which provides unrestricted support to ten performing arts organizations at Lincoln Center: The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Film Society of Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Lincoln Center Theater, The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, New York Philharmonic, The School of American Ballet, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and The Juilliard School.
Sponsors for the evening were American Express, Hearst Corporation and Harper’s Bazaar.
To learn more about the Corporate Fund and to donate please visit http://www.lccorporatefund.org
We were honored to be involved in another program at Lincoln Center in support of the arts and in strengthening our expertise in the area of high-end fashion events.