Donna Karan joins her designers and models in their Style for Strength modeling group photo.
Photo: Luca Babini / VSUSA courtesy of
What did Thom Browne, Michael Kors, Emily Bode and the rest of New York’s fashion stars do last week on Intrepid? At the request of a force of nature, namely their designer Donna Karan, all of them created a one-of-a-kind piece made from military waste for the June 5th auction, which will go to Donate to the U.S. Veterans Services Center. Karan gathered them on the foredeck of the historic ship for a photo shoot to promote the event.
Style for Strength, as this auction is named, was the brainchild of Karan and her friend Cheri Kaufman, co-founder of Kaufman Astoria Studios and Veteran Services USA . The purpose of the auction is to raise funds specifically to support the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTS) in servicemen and women through a new drug-free protocol, Reconsolidation of Traumatic Memory (RTM).
“The trauma that veterans go through really resonated with me,” Karan said. “But there isn’t a single one that doesn’t deal with mental health issues. The program has a % success rate, so we’re here to raise awareness about it. That’s what I’m saying Believe in everything, and the ethos of Urban Zen: How to Find Peace in Chaos.”
Karan is no stranger to organizing. In 90, she was instrumental in the creation of Seventh on Sale after the deaths of designers Roy Halston Frowick, Patrick Kelly, Willi Smith and Perry Ellis from AIDS In part, the four-day shopping extravaganza raised $4 million for the New York City AIDS Foundation that year and became an annual event. Her brand Urban Zen in 2007 has goals built into its business plan to fund the Urban Zen Foundation’s philanthropic healthcare initiative.
