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New York Fashion Week provides a multitude of excuses to get dressed up on a weeknight, but few come with a cause quite like the Kering Foundation’s annual Caring for Women dinner at The Pool. Its mission? Raising funds for organizations working to end gender-based violence; a global crisis that one in three women will experience in her lifetime. This year, its co-founders Salma Hayek Pinault and François-Henri Pinault co-hosted the evening alongside Pamela Anderson, Simone Biles, Benicio Del Toro, Nacho Figueras, Dakota Johnson, and Lorna Simpson.
It is the house of Kering, after all, so the evening called for a black tie dress code, and no one seemed interested in underdressing. Guests used the occasion to turn out in the glitzy Gucci (Paris Hilton; Alix Earle), leather-forward Balenciaga (Biles; Jordan Roth), and slinky Valentino (Johnson; Colman Domingo). Conversation drifted from the shows and spectacles of the week, to the true raison d’être of the night: championing women through crisis.
“Supporting women is a lifelong feat and effort that I will be working on for the rest of my career,” actress Camila Morrone told Vogue. “It just makes so much sense that Salma is behind it all because she’s been such a champion of women from the start.”
Paris Hilton agreed. “I love Salma. She’s so beautiful inside and out and has such a big heart,” she praised. “I think it’s amazing that she’s bringing together all these people to support such an amazing and really impactful cause.” Hilton added that when she was asked to DJ the evening, “it was an immediate yes.”
Attendees soon funneled through a verdant archway into The Pool’s famed dining room, which seemed to announce itself first by scent, as it had been converted into a meadow in bloom for the evening. Chrysanthemums and alliums rose between feathery ornamental grasses, and the effect was as fragrant as it was lush. At the table, kale and sunchoke salad with Asian pears and goat cheese gave way to filet mignon Florentine with crispy rosemary potatoes and roasted carrots, all served on Ginori 1735 porcelain.
François-Henri Pinault wasted no time getting to the purpose beneath the glamour. From the stage, he pointed to violent social-media trends, deepfakes, and AI-generated abuse as emerging threats. “All these can lead men, and particularly young men, to believe that misogyny is simply part of manhood,” he said. “And this too cannot become the new norm.” Then he turned to his wife. “My love, Salma. Thank you,” he said. “Thank you for being the driving force behind the Kering Foundation. None of this would exist without you.”
What followed brought the work itself into focus, as emotional films introduced the four beneficiary organizations and the women at the center of their efforts before representatives emotively addressed the room themselves.
Then the paddles came out. Among the evening’s auction lots was a trip to Milan with Bottega Veneta, complete with a private session with creative director Louise Trotter—and a $50,000 spending credit to match. Another promised an Argentine polo weekend at world-renowned player and evening co-host Nacho Figueras’s private ranch.
Figueras took the stage to offer a glimpse of what awaited the winner, prompting the kind of collective heart-flutter usually reserved for a rom-com lead. “Martha, you can ride with me. How are you, Martha?” he called to Martha Stewart. Naturally, Stewart’s hand was the first to shoot up when bidding began. “Nacho—oh my God,” Stewart said with a swoon to Vogue afterward. “I’m so glad he called me out.” By the end of the auction, the evening had amassed a staggering sum: more than $5 million for organizations supporting women and children.
Even when dinner was over and guests began filtering toward The Grill to celebrate, Hayek Pinault was not quite finished. She remained behind making introductions to the NGO leaders, speaking emphatically about their work, and continuing conversations long after the rest of the room had cleared. “Awareness is important, but I really think it’s a little boring,” she told Vogue in no uncertain terms. “You gotta do something.” It’s a philosophy she recognized early in Pinault, too. Recalling an emergency that arose when the pair were still “dating secretly,” she remembered how quickly he stepped in to help secure transportation for women who needed it. “It was so easy,” she said. “And he said, ‘Oh my God, we need to do this.’ He cares.”
That impulse toward action is also what keeps her hopeful. “I see the heartbreak, but I [also] see the progress,” Hayek Pinault said. “There’s always something else that you can do.”
“Rita’s coming on!” her team urged—one of several attempts to coax her back to the party, evidently no easy feat for someone so engrossed in the work. This one finally did the trick. Waiting there were trays of espresso martinis (a worthy invitation to keep the party going into the wee hours.) Rita Ora had one last request from the evening’s mastermind to fulfill. “What Queen Salma wants, Queen Salma gets!” she declared before opening her set with “I Am Woman,” which was Hayek Pinault’s personal song request for the night. Hilton followed at the DJ booth, throwing a “Love you, sis!” in Ora’s direction before taking over the decks herself. It’s safe to say the girls were having fun.
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Photo: Saskia Lawaks
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