Carolina Herrera, Sylvester Stallone, Camilla Belle attend 6th annual PSLA Winter Gala

Jan. 27, 2017 10:10 AM PT

For those who did a double take when walking the streets of Beverly Hills on Thursday, Carolina Herrera was indeed in town and not only did she visit her own stores on Rodeo Drive, she hit Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Barneys New York for some personal shopping. But the main reason the designer flew to Los Angeles that day was to cochair the 6th Annual Winter Gala benefiting PSLA with its founder, Rochelle Gores Fredston.

The black-tie evening at Alec and Kelly Gores’ home, attended by Sylvester Stallone and Camilla Belle, honored Jennifer Smith Hale and Amanda and Catherina Gores with Philanthropic Visionary Awards.

“I came for Jennifer and Rochelle. I love PSLA because I’m always involved in charities for children and this one is an important one because there are a lot of abused children in the world and we have to get together and help them,” said Herrera, who kept the focus on the evening’s cause (it was, after all, a pricey 370-person fund-raiser for at-risk youth).

Commenting on the recent executive shuffle at her company, which saw Emilie Rubinfeld become president, she said, “I am a great believer in promoting people who have been in my office a long time and in the company for a long time. It’s always nice to have the best.”

When asked next about her plans for hiring a future designer, she demurred, “I don’t talk about that. I don’t have one designer, I have a team. I am the creative director of this company and they have to have my same eye and I have the last word.”

Gores Fredston expressed gratitude for Herrera’s support, saying, “She came all the way to be here tonight, and that really shows where PSLA has gone. We’re touching [the lives of] kids in New York as well.”

Of the large fashion industry contingent — which included board member Mary Alice Haney Davidoff and honorary committee members Monique Lhuillier, Eric Buterbaugh, NJ and Mark Goldston, Rosetta Getty, Pamela Skaist-Levy, Sally and Michel Perrin, Christina Zilber, Elizabeth Stewart, Jen Meyer, Mandana Dayani, Jessica de Ruiter and Jane Ross — Gores Fredston said, “We try to keep the evening tight so that everyone here knows one another.”