New York Fashion Week: Gucci benefit for 'Malawi and Unicef'

Hilary Alexander reports from New York fashion week

Madonna and her 11-year-old daughter, Lourdes, making her first Red Carpet appearance, were the stars of the multi-million dollar charity benefit staged by Gucci at the United Nations during New York Fashion Week on Wednesday night.

	First red carpet appearance: Lourdes Leon with her mother Madonna

Holding her mother’s hand, as they walked the red carpet, and dressed in a navy satin Gucci dress, Lourdes faced the television cameras with poise.

“I am very proud of my mother and what she is doing and I’m very excited about tonight,” she said.

The event, ‘Raising Malawi and Unicef’, co-chaired by Madonna, who has an adopted son from Malawi, and the Gucci designer, Frida Giannini, raised in excess of $5 million.

Held in a marquee on the UN’s North Lawn – the first time it has been used for a celebrity event – the gala brought a Hollywood A-List to New York.

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes; Gwyneth Paltrow; Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher; Salma Hayek and her beau, Francois-Henri Pinault of the Paris-based PPR Group which owns Gucci; a heavily pregnant Jennifer Lopez, expecting her first child in a few weeks, and her husband, Marc Anthony; Drew Barrymore, Orlando Bloom; Brooke Shields; Lucy Liu; and Kate Hudson were among the 650 guests.

Almost all the women were dressed in Gucci, except Katie Holmes Cruise, a striking exception in a crimson, figure-hugging dress, by the British designer, Alexander McQueen.

The evening featured performances by Alicia Keyes, Timbaland, Rihanna and the African Children’s Choir.

Madonna, who wore a simple beige, silk jersey Gucci dress, with minimal diamonds, took the stage for an impassioned and frank introductory speech. Confessing she was more nervous than performing live in a stadium, she said she had spent 25 years in the entertainment business thinking only of herself and wanting to be the best.

“One day I woke up and thought what is the point?” She cited a Zulu proverb which translates as ‘I am because we are’, adding: ”I’ve spent enough time on the I.”

She said her first trip to Malawi, where one million children are orphaned by AIDS and where girls, by the time they reach their 12th birthdays – the age her daughter Lourdes will be in October - will have been sexually abused at least three times, “was the journey of a lifetime.”

"I am facing a room of giants. But I don't just want your cheques. I want your heart. It is not just about giving. It is about the person you become in the process."

The evening, underwritten by Gucci, raised $3.7 million in ticket sales, with a further $1.3 million from an auction which included football training with David Beckham, a gym session with Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow, a first edition of Harry Potter signed by J.K. Rowling and a personal wardrobe fitting with Frida Giannini.

Several millions more are expected to be generated in a “silent auction”.

The money will be used to build a girls’ secondary school in Malawi which will open in 2010.