Eight years ago, Diane von Furstenberg hosted her first eponymous award ceremony honoring extraordinary women, and last Friday saw yet another amazing night honoring female powerhouses of change. In introducing von Furstenberg to the stage to kick off the evening, legendary journalist Tina Brown claimed the designer knew the zeitgeist before anyone else did. Brown might have been referring to wrap dresses, but the statement also applied to von Furstenberg’s vision for a set of awards that recognized and championed women nearly a decade ahead of #MeToo and #Overlooked.
This year’s honorees included U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor (the third woman and first justice of Hispanic heritage to hold this position), Misty Copeland (the first African-American principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre), Luma Mufleh (founder of Fugees Family, Inc., a nonprofit devoted to child refugees), Ariela Suster (founder of Sequence, a jewelry line empowering people in need in her native El Salvador), and Jaha Dukureh (an activist for ending female genital mutilation and a 2018 Nobel Peace Prize nominee).
von Furstenberg, actress Storm Reid, CNN’s Brooke Baldwin, Andres Suster (brother to Ariela), and actress Keri Russell introduced the honorees, respectively. Situated in a room at the United Nations overlooking the East River, the ceremony felt more familial than ceremonial. In lieu of auditorium seats, guests lounged on low couches; Gloria Steinem, Fran Lebowitz, Barry Diller, Talita von Furstenberg, and Cipriana Quann sat casually, enraptured by the inspiring individuals who took the stage. The acceptance speeches unfolded like one call to action after another; each honoree commanded the room with their stories—all tales of women who had overcome. Before Cleo Wade recited a poignant poem for the occasion, Justice Sotomayor closed out the evening with her words of wisdom. (Elaine Welteroth and Fabiola Beracasa Beckman even left their seats behind to crouch on the floor for closer proximity.) She encouraged everyone in the room to find inspiration in those little and less celebrated moments of courage all around us. “The stories of your grandmothers, of your mothers, and of the other women in your lives who have uplifted you, don’t forget their stories because they’re the stories that will keep us moving.”