Seven Bar Foundation Raises $500,000 at First Lingerie New York Show

At Cipriani 42nd Street Thursday night, the Seven Bar Foundation gathered 500 guests for its first New York lingerie fashion show to raise funds in the name of microfinance. The philanthropic organization, headed by director Renata Mutis Black and sheriff Kim Hoedeman, is designed to give underprivileged women loans to spearhead their own businesses, and last year launched a series of undergarment-focused shows as a way to build awareness and collect donations. After visiting Miami in February 2009, the foundation headed to New York for its second event, and plans to host others in Los Angeles and 15 other cities in the coming years.

Like Miami's show, the New York affair included a dinner, runway presentation, and live and silent auction, adding an elevated catwalk and round tables of 10 to the former bank's main ballroom. To spice up the night, co-chair Veronica Webb (who hosted the Miami event), hit the runway in a corset illuminated with embedded LED lights and aerialists from ImaginAerial performed on silk ropes to launch the foundation's new Y panty.

The Seven Bar Foundation's logo is a ladder, representing its mission of giving women a hand up and not a handout, and this was incorporated into the look of the staging conceived by ICrave, a company best known for designing nightclubs and restaurants such as STK and Provocateur. Red rope ladders hung on either side of stage, and the organization's emblem—four red horizontal stripes—marked the runway entrance. Elsewhere, the decor was minimal, allowing sponsors like Hennessy Black, diamond distributor Royal Asscher, and Freedom Bay St. Lucia room to create their own branded areas.

Once guests were seated for dinner, the night's program began with an introduction to the nonprofit and its mission by Black, Hoedeman, and host Sofia Vergara, as well as a video message from co-chair Deepak Chopra about the importance of empowering women. The parade of ladies' intimates followed, showcasing Parisian couturier Carine Gilson's silky underthings and Atsuko Kudo's latex wares on more than 40 models, including Elsa Benitez, Crystal Renn, and Liya Kebede. The aerial performers also wore panties, albeit under skin-colored bodysuits, launching the foundation's Y collection of underwear with energetic acrobatics on strips of silk suspended from the ceiling.

Comedian Sherrod Small ran the live auction from the catwalk, with items like a walk-on role in Men in Black III and a fully staffed Ferretti yacht in the Bahamas offered to complement the silent-auction lots displayed earlier in the night. Through ticket sales and the live auction, the event grossed nearly $500,000 for the foundation; the silent auction runs online at Charitybuzz until November 3.