Tonight:
5°c
Model's charity ball raises £1.2 million to build children's play parks
Terry Kirby24 Feb 2010
There was an outburst of “blinging in the rain” when guests at the charity Love Ball London were forced into the cold and wet last night when dry ice set off fire alarms at the Roundhouse in Camden.
Kate Moss, Elizabeth Hurley, Tracey Emin, film producer Harvey Weinstein, designer Anya Hindmarch and Jade Jagger were among dozens of guests who spent nearly half an hour in the freezing car park before the fire brigade gave the all-clear.
Many of the men removed their dinner jackets to warm the shoulders of their shivering companions.
But the rest of the evening, organised by Russian supermodel Natalia Vodianova and Lucy Yeomans, editor of Harper's Bazaar, was a success and raised £1.2 million for Vodianova's Naked Heart Foundation, which builds children's play parks in deprived areas of Russia.
For the first time the charity will be funding parks in the UK with plans for play areas in deprived parts of London, Liverpool and Glasgow. Others guests included fashion photographer Mario Testino, Bryan Ferry, Sir Peter Blake, Joely Richardson, Mary and Stella McCartney and model Liberty Ross.
Artist Dinos Chapman was the Love Ball's creative director while all guests received Baboushka dolls designed by Blake.
The ball's auction saw Blake's silkscreen print I Love You top the bidding at £160,000, while the £135,000 fetched for Chapman's work prompted Emin to declare: “That's an absolute bargain.” Emin also auctioned her work along with artists Mark Quinn and Jeff Koons.
The highlight of the sale was a pink and white diamond necklace, designed by Vodianova and made by diamond experts De Beers, which sold for £180,000 to PR executive Matthew Freud, accompanied by his wife Elisabeth Murdoch.
The guests were entertained by singers Yusuf Islam, Leona Lewis, Sharleen Spiteri and Paloma Faith.
