Together with host Adrian Grenier, founder Scott Harrison and 1,500 supporters raised close to half a million dollars in support of bringing clean, safe drinking water to underdeveloped nations worldwide, at the third annual charity: ball at New York’s Metropolitan Pavilion, with amazing support from their sponsors who covered over $250,000 in costs, (in-kind donations)—Zenith, Blavatnik Family Foundation, Sterling Affair, Thomas Preti Caterers and Creative Edge, Scharff Weisberg Inc., Tripp/Mixx Productions and Bailey Brothers, Starbright Floral Design and GREY GOOSE Vodka.

Jenna Elfman, Paul Ziff (Zenith Watches, LVMH), Fern Mallis, Colin Egglesfield (of All My Children fame), Summer Rayne Oakes, Larissa Bond and Citizen Cope lit up the red carpet alongside designers Ashleigh Verrier, Jordi Scott and Jamison Ernest, as Whitney Port and Olivia Palermo watched Heatherette’s Richie Rich cruise the water walk to the music of guest performer Amos Lee. Sipping “Sub-Saharan” cocktails and Sam Adams, notable faces Andrew Saffir, Brydie Bell, Greg and Ali Kwiat, Emma Snowdon-Jones, celebrity chef Rocco Dispirito and U.S. Olympic Fencing Silver Medalists Jason Rogers and Tim Morehouse mingled amid a powerful display of larger-than-life photos which gave faces to those charity: water works to help.

The party continued after-hours at Kiss and Fly and Bagatelle in New York’s West Village.

Miami, USA - As main sponsor of Design Miami/ 2008, Swarovski Crystal Palace unveiled a show-stopping installation of Liquid Space by Ross Lovegrove at Design Miami.

The concept of Liquid Space is centred symmetrically around the interplay of materials and light and the synergies associated with pure materials and their refractive, reflective optical beauty.

It is a dining art space whereby each and every single element works together as a single entity, in harmony and in pure material expression. As an installation piece the chandelier appears to have melted through the ceiling, viscously inverted to deliver three-dimensional light above and below the tables. The impact of the polished aluminium surface is to reflect the total concentrated mass of 250,000 Swarovski crystals and capture the liquidity of light interplay.

Swarovski Crystal Palace celebrated the launch of Liquid Space with a private dinner in honour of Ross Lovegrove with a guest list of design, art and architecture icons.

Nadja Swarovski with Arik Levy Piero Lissoni (left), Ross Lovegrove and Tom Dixon (right)

In addition to Liquid Space shown in the Design Miami/ temporary structure, Swarovski Crystal Palace displayed multiple Blossom chandeliers and Cavern benches in the curatorial Design Miami exhibition, Beyond Organic: Design in the State of Nature, which explores design inspired by the natural world.

“Swarovski Crystal Palace is proud to be associated with Design Miami as we believe strongly in supporting contemporary design and art. I have been honoured to have worked with some incredible artists who have created pieces for Swarovski Crystal Palace that blur the boundaries between art and function. Design Miami is an important showcase for the wealth of talent that exists today,” says Nadja Swarovski.

Now in its seventh year, Swarovski Crystal Palace has worked with some of the world’s foremost and collectable designers including Zaha Hadid, Yvés Behar, Studio Job, Tom Dixon, Ron Arad, Tokujin Yoshioka and Fernando and Humberto Campana. Design Miami has established itself as the preeminent international fair for limited-edition design and the partnership with Swarovski has developed from a natural synergy in the support and promotion of groundbreaking new design.

Swarovski, the world’s most prestigious manufacturer of precision cut crystal, is dedicated to its work with contemporary designers. Swarovski Crystal Palace is a revolutionary project that has aimed to create signature interpretations of light and design using the emotive medium of cut crystal. Whilst celebrating and reinterpreting the rich traditions of the chandelier, Swarovski Crystal Palace has broken barriers, played with the rules and opened a new chapter in the history of lighting, art and design.

SWAROVSKI
113 years ago, in 1895, Daniel Swarovski I, a Bohemian inventor and visionary, moved to the village of Wattens, Tyrol in Austria, with his newly-invented machine for cutting and polishing crystal jewellery stones. From these beginnings, which revolutionised the fashion world, Swarovski has grown to be the world’s leading producer of precision-cut crystal, for fashion, jewellery and more recently lighting, architecture and interiors. Today, the company, still based in Wattens, family-owned and run by 4th and 5th generation family members, has a global reach, with some 22,000 employees, a presence in over 120 countries and a turnover in 2007 of 2.56 billion Euros. Swarovski comprises two major divisions, one producing and selling loose crystals to the industry and the other creating design-driven finished products. Swarovski crystal components, known by their product brand names CRYSTALLIZED™ – Swarovski Elements for fashion and STRASS® Swarovski® Crystal for architecture and light, have become an essential ingredient of international design. Showing the creativity that lies at the heart of the company, Swarovski’s own-brand lines of accessories, jewellery and home décor are sold through more than 1150 Swarovski stores and concessions in all major fashion capitals, while the exclusive Daniel Swarovski accessories collection has become the company’s Couture signature. The Swarovski Crystal Society has close to 400,000 members worldwide, keen collectors of the celebrated crystal figurines. And in Wattens, Crystal Worlds, the multi-media crystal museum, has attracted over 7 million visitors since it was opened in 1995, as a celebration of Swarovski’s universe of innovation and inspiration, of crystal as the ultimate creative material. The Swarovski corporation also includes four industrial brands, Tyrolit®, manufacturing grinding tools, Swareflex, for road safety reflectors, Optik, producing precision optical instruments and Signity, Swarovski’s brand for genuine and created gemstones.

From tie clips that cast a retroshine on this Holiday season’s skinny necktie to sophisticated cufflinks and chic bracelets that add subtle sparkle at the wrist, men’s jewelry is getting Hollywood-style attention this year as a way to easily update a masculine wardrobe.

Thanks to television shows like the Emmy-sweeping Mad Men, and upcoming period films, such as director Sam Mendes’ Revolutionary Road starring Leonardo Di Caprio and HBO’s Entourage the biggest trends in men’s wear this fall pays homage to the 1960s.

This retro look is complete with precise, classic tailoring, and iconic skinny neckwear, perfectly accented with a tie bar. These accessory essentials are available at a variety of price points and finishes, and range in styles from ultra-traditional to updated
contemporary. Colibri,known for its innovative men’s jewelry and smoking accessories, offers a tie-bar made of stainless steel embedded with luminescent green glass from its Diffusion Collection. Retailing for ($60), this eye-catching piece adds a year round
blast of color to practically any suit combination, from navy to khaki.

Also for Holiday, an aristocratic sensibility takes hold, translating into shirts with French cuffs, both über-dressy and simply casual.
Appropriate cufflinks are an absolute no matter what style a man might opt for this season. These wrist-worthy additions provide
entry to conversation while adding an element of surprise to a complete Holiday look. Holiday

Dolan Bullock, a maker of fine men’s accessories, offers sterling silver with blue hawk’s eye, cuff link for a dramatic look and 14-karat gold cuff links with white and Tahitian black pearls for elegant pairings that go from boardroom to black-tie. The same can be said for cufflinks and tie bars in Tonino Lamborghini’s jewelry collections, where the race is on with titanium and garnet accessories that say they are as fast as they are cool.

IN RECOGNITION OF WORLD AIDS DAY, HEARST MAGAZINES, THE DIAMOND EMPOWERMENT FUND AND A DIAMOND IS FOREVER HOST “EMPOWERMENT FOR AFRICA” DINNER WITH RUSSELL SIMMONS & SPECIAL GUESTS

(front left to right) Rev. Run and wife Justine Simmons; Diamond Empowerment Fund ambassador, South African super model Nicola Breydenbach; Kim Kardashian and Russell Simmons.

On Monday, December 1st, 2008 Hearst Magazines, A Diamond is Forever and The Diamond Empowerment FundÔ(D.E.F.) hosted an exclusive “Empowerment for Africa” dinner at Hearst Tower in Manhattan, in recognition of World AIDS Day, with D.E.F. co-founder Russell Simmons and special guests including Tamsin Smith, President of the (RED) campaign. The Diamond Empowerment Fund’s mission is to raise money to support education initiatives that develop and empower economically disadvantaged people in African nations where diamonds are a natural resource. And on World AIDS Day for a continent ravaged by the disease, education is the critical tool to help stem the spread of HIV/AIDS.

On-site accompanying Simmons to spread the word was Kim Kardashian, Rev. Run with wife, Justine Simmons, D.E.F.’s first Africa’s Angel ambassador - model Nicola Breydenbach, Gayle King, Cassie, 30 Rock actress Katrina Bowden, South African Consul General Fikile Mugubane and dignitaries from the United Nations.

Leaders from the jewelry industry, including Neal Goldberg and Theo Killian, CEO and President of Zale Corp, respectively; Efraim Grinberg, CEO of Movado; Ira and Phyllis Bergman of Mercury Ring; Scott Rauch, President of Simmons Jewelry Co.; Saul Goldberg and Eve Goldberg of William Goldberg Company; Richard Lenox and Sally Morrison of JWT/Diamond Information Center and Judith Ripka were among those in attendance.

D.E.F.’s first beneficiary is the Community and Individual Development Association (CIDA City Campus), South Africa’s only free college.

(front left to right) Cassie and Kim Kardashian

Photo credit: Photographer Mike Ficeto, Hearst Magazines

Molly Simms wearing Cynthia Steffe SS09 Runway Collection Midnight mini jacket dress at the Grand Opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex