Diesel Celebrates Collection With Edun

Renzo Rosso, Bono and Ali Hewson

Photo By Dominique Maître

AFRICAN BEATS: Diesel took over Paris' Gaîté Lyrique theater on Sunday to launch its 25-piece capsule collection with Edun, the clothing label founded by Ali Hewson and her husband Bono. It is manufactured in Africa with cotton from Uganda. 

Bono, wearing Edun pants, said he did not advise his wife on the collection. "Our marriage would end if I advised Ali on design," the U2 singer said, with a smile. "Unfortunately, this is not an equal equation; she knows a lot more about music than I know about fashion."

As for cotton, Bono described it as "a beautiful thing. I love to be in the cotton fields."

Solange Knowles performed her song "Losing You," while wearing a Diesel dress, Kenzo shoes and assorted jewelry. "I have a little bit of a ring obsession," she confessed backstage.  

Knowles first met with Bono when she was 17. "I was going to Johannesburg," she explained. "He was part of charity initiative with Nelson Mandela [and] there was a big concert. I sat next to him on the plane between South Africa and Houston. I went there with my sister, who was performing."

Jessica Alba, sporting Maje knitwear and Céline, said she is going home after the shows to launch her new lifestyle book that includes recipes and organizational tips. It was published by Rodale. 

Among other guests were Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Yves Carcelle and Ellen von Unwerth. 

The party continued with African singers and dancers’ performances. "I love African music; it carries you away," said von Unwerth, while snapping photos of the party with her small digital camera. "I was taking African dance lessons when I was young, but I saw myself in the mirror and I stop right away, as it looks totally ridiculous on me."

http://www.edun.com/

http://www.wwd.com

David Gray, Bono’s Sunglasses and Me

In his particularly funny and entertaining way of writing, Neil Mc Cormick tells us how tiresome and difficult it is to run a charity event.

From The Telegraph:

Neil McCormick's son Finn wearing Bono's sunglasses

On Wednesday March 6, I am presenting a charity concert at the Islington Assembly Hall in London, featuring David Gray, The Magic Numbers, Gabriella Cilmi, David Ford, Bo Bruce and a few other musical friends and associates. Please buy a ticket and prevent an out-of-depth rock critic’s nervous breakdown.

I was not cut out for the life of a promoter. Indeed, I’m not sure anyone is. I was in bands for long enough in my younger years to know how fretful staging a gig can be, involving a huge advance effort in getting musicians, equipment and venue ready, with no guarantee that anyone will turn up and make it worthwhile. “Why do you think all promoters look permanently stressed?” a band manager sympathetically said to me, before adding, “You’re looking a bit peeky yourself, mate.”

I’m doing it for love. Well, specifically for my wife. She is an acupuncturist involved in a small charity, Moxafrica, who run a research project in universities in Uganda and South Africa, investigating the treatment of TB with Chinese medicine. It is not an obviously appealing cause, like food for the starving. Yet Moxafrica is having results with potentially wide ranging implications for the developing world, where drug resistant TB is epidemic (it kills someone every 20 seconds in Africa). Although the sums required to support Moxafrica seem small in the grand scheme of things (£16,000 would keep them going another year), it is a tough time for all charities right now and Moxafrica is in danger of coming to a premature end. I listened to lots of conversations about little schemes to raise small amounts as the clock kept ticking, until, almost against my own better judgment, I uttered the fateful line, “You know you could raise that in one go with a gig.”

And so I have entered into another world, of promoters, managers and agents. I have been spending time in empty venues, looking out from empty stages on to empty floors and empty seats, the most beautiful concert halls and lavishly appointed clubs all taking on a strangely bereft atmosphere without the throb of humanity that brings them to life. “An empty venue is of no use to anyone,” is an oft-repeated line, and I have been offered top night spots on attractive terms.

“The money’s on the popcorn,” is another much repeated phrase, meaning, if I could guarantee a certain number of people through the doors, the venue would make its real profit behind the bar.

Moxafrica is a charitable organisation set up to investigate the use of moxibustion therapy for the treatment of tuberculosis, particularly in resource-poor environments in the twenty first century.

On Wednesday, 6 March 2013 at 19.00 -20.30 at Islington Assembly Hall, Upper Street, London, UK there will be a fundraiser event , hosted by Neil Mc Cormick 

An amazing night in prospect!

David Gray

The Magic Numbers

Gabriella Cilmi

David Ford

Bo Bruce

Buckshot Soup

(with special guests to be announced....)

..and a rock'n'roll raffle of - amongst other things - a pair of Bono's shades!

if you want help this potentially immensely important project to progress, click on DONATE!

http://moxafrica.org/

Bono and Ali at the Annual Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Gala in New York

Last night was the fashion event of the year: the Annual Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Gala in New Yor. Bono and Ali were there among the rich, the glamorous and the famous.
The aim of  the gala was the opening of the exhibition "American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity" organised by Patrick Robinson ( The Gap),  Oprah Winfrey and the editor of  Vogue, Anna Wintour .The final objective of the night was to raise money for several charities.

Celebrities like Sienna Miller, Emma Watson, Claire Danes, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Nicole Richie, Marion Cotillard, Kirsten Stewart, Kate Bosworth, Emilie de Ravin, Anne Hathaway, Jennifer López, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Eva Longoria were present and the show was closed by Lady Gaga. 

source:www.dailymail.co.uk//www.nytimes.com