In a normal year, Carine Roitfeld would be spending early May preparing for the Cannes Film Festival and the annual amfAR gala at Hotel Cap du Eden-Roc, where she stages a benefit runway show for the AIDS organization. But with the COVID crisis, Cannes was canceled, and that left the charity’s fundraising in question. Roitfeld and YouTube came up with a clever solution: The first at-home fashion show raising money for charity. Today at 4 p.m. EDT, YouTube will debut a full runway extravaganza starring Kim Kardashian West, Karlie Kloss, Hailey Bieber, Joan Smalls, Karen Elson, Miss Fame, and more, each walking the runway in their favorite outfit—only in this case the runway might actually be the hallway. Designers like Virgil Abloh, Diane von Furstenberg, Maria Grazia Chiuri, and Alexander Wang will also appear in segments.
“Because we cannot do the show, this was an idea to unify the runway for amfAR and to fight against COVID-19,” Roitfeld said over the phone from Paris, where she was eagerly awaiting today’s debut. The foundation, which was founded in 1983 to combat the AIDS crisis and has raised over $20 million for AIDS research, has created a new fund to fight COVID-19. In addition to raising awareness for the charity, many participants in the runway show have also made personal donations to the fund. “I was very thrilled that we were able to make this happen,” Roitfeld continued. “I hope tonight is going to be fun and make people smile. It’s not easy for everyone these days and fashion is here to make us smile.”
Derek Blasberg, who heads up YouTube’s fashion channels, helped make Roitfeld’s at-home show a reality. “I’ve seen a lot of Carine’s amfAR shows and I love the idea of taking some of the fun of those runways and putting them on the internet for everyone to see and to raise awareness for an incredible cause,” he said. You might think there would be quite a large production gap between Roitfeld’s annual amfAR catwalk in Cannes, with its diamond accessories and couture dresses, but the stylist and her team worked in overdrive to make the at-home show as thrilling as their IRL events.
“I’m very control freak!” she laughed, noting that while she ceded some of her oversight to the models’ themselves, she brought on her usual team of collaborators to give advice to the models. “Tom Pecheux, Sam McKnight, they made little videos to give [the models] tricks for how to do their makeup, their hair, and Stephen Galloway gave them some tricks for how to walk because he’s a great choreographer and he has worked on all the shows. Piergiorgio [del Moro] helped us with all the casting, and Michel Gaubert found the music for the show and sent [the models] some music for their rehearsals.” Roitfeld and her two stylist assistants also conducted Zoom calls with some of the models to work out looks.
