Ralph Lauren fashion featured at CHIPS spring luncheon
The event: The CHIPS spring luncheon and fashion presentation, benefiting the Children’s Institute Inc., featured a runway show of Ralph Lauren’s fall 2014 collection. The name of the organization -- begun by daughters and daughters-in-law of the Colleagues, which also supports the Children’s Institute -- stands for Colleagues Helpers in Philanthropic Service.
The scene: Garcelle Beauvais of “Franklin & Bash,” Ming-Na Wen of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” and Decades boutique owner Cameron Silver were among 250 guests packing the ballroom at the Four Seasons Hotel for Thursday’s affair.
“We made it through a venue change and an Obama visit,” said Marni Pozil, the organization’s president, from onstage. Pozil was referring to President Obama’s traffic-jamming visit to Los Angeles and to the luncheon’s last minute switch to the Four Seasons from the original planned location, the Beverly Hills Hotel. The group is one of several that have boycotted the Beverly Hills Hotel because it is owned by an arm of the Brunei government, which recently implemented an extreme version of Muslim sharia law that allows, among other things, punishments such as whippings, amputations and executions by stoning.
Over lunch, Pozil said that the country’s laws run contrary to the values of the group and of the Children’s Institute, which is devoted to helping children who suffer from abuse and offers services to women in abusive households.
Quotes of note: “It’s just hard to think of children being abused and children being hurt,” Beauvais said. “I think we need to go back to being a village. … Let’s spread the word. Let’s do what we can to bring awareness, to keep awareness out there, so that these little kids only know what happiness is about.”
Returning to the stage, Pozil offered a favorite quote, “If you want to touch the past, touch a rock; if you want to touch the present touch a flower; if you want to touch the future, touch a life. ... So everybody who is here today is touching a life. And thank you for that.”
The numbers: Including tickets selling for $300, tables ranging up to $7,500, a raffle, auction and boutique sales, the luncheon raised nearly $100,000 for the institute.
Ellen Olivier is founder of Society News LA.
