Aspen Fashion Week: Combining Play With Philanthropy

by Susan Kime (RSS feed)
Mar 26th 2010 at 10:03AM

An important part of Aspen's cachet lies in its relative isolation combined with its great wealth. This unusual combination is part of its history. It was in 1879 when a few pioneers crossed the Continental Divide, and discovered a Ute hunting area, a valley sheltered on three sides by mountain ranges, rich with game, and fresh water. Also, they discovered, a great abundance of silver. So even then, the possibility of wealth, combined with isolation equaled a kind of intrigue, and helped define Aspen as it was then and, to some degree, Aspen as it is now.

These days, Aspen is defined not by the possibility of wealth, but by the reality of it: the most billionaires per capita in a small town, again a town consistently on the most-expensive-places-to-live lists, a town with a sustained and sustainable luxury energy. This energy is defined by partly by the enjoyment of high altitude sports and cultural events, but it is also defined by a great amount of philanthropy, as are many areas in this country blessed with great wealth. Along with Ralph Lauren, Dior, Prada, Bulgari,Gucci, Fendi, and all other luxury boutique emporia, is The Aspen Institute, The Sports Philanthropy Project, The Aspen Foundation, The Aspen Community Foundation, to name just a few. And this is a small town – about 6000 people, about 3.5 square miles long. The most recent coming together of wealth, philanthropy and enjoyment was Aspen Fashion Week held from March 14 to March 19, 2010. It was a destination fashion event designed to showcase and market the winter resort, ski and tech outerwear both at home and slope side.

"The second Aspen Fashion Week quickly developed into a must on the fashion and entertainment calendar," said Lisa Johnson founder of AFW. "Aspen is prime for an event of this caliber; combining world class designers, young designers and brands with unique art programs, film screenings, and great music."

Gallery: Aspen Fashion Week

W magazine began the week long event with their annual opening night party. The schedule included on-mountain activities with Heidiski, Marmot, Kjus, and High Society Free Ride. In addition, there was all day access to the Aspen Club & Spa, all day make-up services by Nars at Cos Bar, and in In-store events with J. Crew (featuring Creative Director Jenna Lyons), Burberry, The Gallerie, Pitkin Co. and a Calypso pop-up shop. There were Après ski fashion shows and presentations with Marmot, Kjus, Victorinex, D&E, Helly Hansen, Obermeyer, Wellensteyn, Authier, Gray, Gabriel Conroy and Christian Siriano. Also, there were screenings of Douglas Keeve's films – Hotel Gramercy Park, Seamless, Unzipped and Fashion Kingdom aka Naomi Conquers Africa, hosted by Naomi Campbell.

It was an event that combined fun, music, fashion, celebrities, and Feed Bags.

Feed Bags? This latter product benefits The Feed Foundation, the charitable partner of Aspen Fashion Week, making all of the fun and color have a more substantial meaning to this event. The Feed Foundation launched their FEED Nature Bag at the event and was sold at various venues, including Ralph Lauren. Also, FEED Founders Lauren Bush and Ellen Gustafson hosted an evening of music with John Forte, of the Fugees, at Aspen's famous Belly Up.

Proceeds from the FEED Nature bag will benefit earthquake victims in Haiti. The goal of FEED Projects is to market and sell as many FEED bags as possible and to feed and educate the world's 400 million hungry children. FEED Projects was started in 2007 by Lauren Bush, an honorary spokesperson for the United Nations World Food Program, and Ellen Gustafson, a former United Nations communications officer. The FEED Foundation is the FEED non-profit arm that raises money and awareness for sustainable global food systems interventions, like school feeding.

Lauren Bush then explained, "The money raised with this bag goes to school feeding in places where they have experienced natural disasters. For example, Chile or Haiti. Twenty school meals are provided for every bag sold. We have chosen many countries to help, but Rwanda and Kenya are at the top of the list. We make some our bags in Kenya. And of course, Rwanda still experiences genocide and food shortages, so they need our help as much as possible."

As this AFW was a resounding success, both in terms of celebrity cachet and charitable giving, the next Aspen Fashion Week is already being planned for September 2010. Stay tuned.