You know, getting all glammed up and going out for the evening is always fun. Of course it is.
But last night’s Save.Love.Give. event was something special.
This was the view from the event space in the United Nations building right when I arrived to start preparing for the event.
Next stop: hair and makeup, presided over by Edward Tricomi of Warren Tricomi himself (while getting my hair done, I managed to score some very fun I-was-Janice-Dickinson’s-roommate-in-the-’70s stories).
Here’s the finished product (with my colleague Alyssa; I’m wearing a Jones New York dress and Ippolita necklaces).
A quick recap of how Save.Love.Give. works: you sign up for the free VERA app and plug in your phone number, and the app scans your service plan to locate your wireless waste (the unused minutes and data that we’re all paying for on our cell phone bills, to the tune of over 52 billion in the U.S. alone).
The app tells you how much you can save (I saved $24.99 a month on my own cell phone bill), and gives you the chance to donate a portion of those savings to Seven Bar Foundation, a one-of-a-kind organization that provides microloans to women to help them set up their own small businesses.
The highlight of the event: inspired by Save.Love.Give.’s efforts to support microfinance for women, designers including Zang Toi (pictured above), Guy Laroche and Erin Fetherston reimagined the corset as a symbol of feminine power.
This is Erin Fetherston’ romantic design…
And this is Zang Toi’s (inspired by the iconic LOVE sculpture over on 6th Avenue).
My favorite interview of the evening (I’ll be posting our video here as soon as it’s available): Kelly Rutherford, both because she’s wonderfully kind, well-spoken, and invested in her charity work…and because she stole the clapper from our videographer’s assistant and called “Speed!” herself (having had more than a little practice with the process, I suspect).
I have to tell you: everyone involved in this organization, from the CEO to the designers of the website to the women who I met who had personally benefited from Seven Bar Foundation’s support…everyone is intensely passionate about this project and what it’s capable of doing, in a way that makes it impossible not to get passionate about it yourself. It’s not just about giving a handout – it’s about giving women a hand up…an opportunity to provide for themselves and for their families on their own terms, and to build businesses that give back to the community themselves.
The only thing better than glamming up for an exciting evening out: returning home, immediately de-glamming, and eating Polly-O String Cheese in front of a faux fire.
Click here to learn more about Save.Love.Give, and here to sign up for the app.
