LUXURY 24

A wave of celebrities pour out of the limo applauded by a small group of fans in front of the UN headquarters in New York. It is 7:30 pm and the party of the year in the Big Apple is about to begin: the one organized by Gucci and Madonna in favor of Raising Malawi and of Unicef. Passing through the metal detector is of course mandatory as we see: Drew Barrymore, the teenage idol, in a black, white and yellow dress from Gucci's spring collection, among the few wearing stockings on an incredibly mild evening (15 degrees), following the rules without any whims. Brooke Shields comes alone, in a long strawberry colored dress and is a bit of a wallflower, in spite of being the star of "Lipstick Jungle", a successful fiction, until a guest – strangely enough wearing a tux – asks for her autograph.

The hostess enters, Frida Giannini, in a black sequence dress, a shimmering scarf and a diamond necklace, a unique piece designed by herself; Mark Lee, the CEO of "Double G" follows, who as often occurs, carefully keeps in his pocket, besides his Blackberry, a little bag of goodies for his adorable Beagle that travels back and forth across the ocean together with his "master". The top model Nadja Auermann passes by, always among the most enchanting, in a long cream dress with black embroidery and very white bare shoulders. Two of the most famous couples for the gossip magazines arrive: Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, she is wearing a bright red dress and a black bob, Demi Moore has a short black dress and is with Ashton Kutcher (he has a country style jacket, hmm!). Then there's Gwyneth Paltrow in pink with a bow together with Orlando Bloom, Robert Polet, the CEO of the Gucci Group declared as executive of the year by "Forbes", Diane von Furstenberg, the speaker of the Chamber of American fashion. In a triumph of flashes the moment of Henri-Francois Pinault has arrived, owner of PPR and therefore a Gucci shareholder, with his companion, the Mexican actress Salma Hayek, in a long black dress for which the comedian Chris Rock will subsequently compliment her famous décolleté, made precious by a Boucheron necklace, another family trademark.
Finally she arrives, Madonna in a draping dove colored jersey with a belt and sandals laced at the ankle, together with her daughter Lourdes. The showgirl is the soul of the project and with her hand on her heart she stirs the 600 guests who spent the incredible amount of 3.7 million dollars for a seat.

The auction begins, led by the head of Christie's: with a flow of offers, the evening collects another 1.4 million dollars. A record of 600 thousand dollars for the package that stars Madonna in New York: she and Paltrow will have an aerobic lesson with the winner who will also be photographed by Steven Klein. Another 350 thousand dollars for the sports package that among the enthusiasm of those present includes a dinner or lunch with the football players of the New York Giants, the fresh winners of the Superbowl, besides an hour of playing with David Beckham in Los Angeles. 120 thousand dollars were paid for a private tour of the Chateau Latour wine cellar with a dinner together with the Pinault-Hayek couple.
In the end, between the performance of Rihanna and another of Alicia Keys, a balance is made. Discovering that perhaps with 5.1 million dollars Gucci and Madonna beat the record for collecting charity under the Empire State Building.
(traduzione di Sara Cecere)