Less than an hour into London’s annual Fabulous Fund Fair, a 12-year-old boy held an orange shopping bag larger than his torso, the royal blue handles slung over the shoulders of his suit jacket. The contents was his prize, a Louis Vuitton sports bag, which he won by scoring three goals at the Louis Vuitton Football Club. He admits the unlikelihood of bringing it to his school soccer practice. Adwoa Aboah and Pixie Geldoff, among many others, removed their shoes in order to improve their luck at scoring goals on the Astroturf. Aboah walked away with a shopping bag after being photographed with Arsenal player Granit Xhaka; the number of her goals scored is unknown.
Other games included Dior bowling, for which guests used a fabricated wheel of Parmigiano to knock down branded pins. At the Celine stand, stacked tins were swung at with (plastic) gold tomatoes. Proceeds from the purchases of £1,000 entry tickets, £100 game tokens, and £10,000–£50,000k spins of the Wheel of Fortune went to the Naked Heart Foundation, a charity founded by Natalia Vodianova which supports children with special needs by developing playgrounds, learning programs, and summer camps all over Russia.
Hosted by Vodianova and Luisa Via Roma’s Andrea Panconesi, the theme for this year’s fair was Baroque Italian Fantasy, citing the dress code as “a Fellini film.” The centerpiece, a replica of Rome’s Trevi Fountain, was surrounded by white garden furniture, roses, and a dreamy circulation of Negronis, Veuve, and espresso martinis. In line for coveted Guerlain ice-cream cones, guests discussed their winnings. Prizes cited: A woman in town for the weekend on business related to blockchain won a Dior wallet. An Italian man sporting a ceramic bow tie seems to have won a Stella McCartney yoga mat. There is mention of the level of difficulty of the Delvaux claw machine, for which the grabbable plastic balls are filled with tiny Delvaux purses. One tiny bag design, particularly adorable, was printed with the English flag.
The venue, a large open space that was formerly a train shed, is now known as The Round House Theatre. Onstage, DJs Kavinsky, Busy P, Kiddy Smile, Doug Marshall, Jodie Harsh, and Fiona Zanetti caused guests to erupt into a solid amount of dancing. Amid whiffs of truffle oil and warm maple syrup, there was an overall air of comradery—a glamorous village held together by its shared interest in a humblingly good cause.
Interpretations of the event’s theme varied: A red sequined minidress with heart-haped sleeves was worn beautifully by Nadine Leopold. Isabel Getty wore a neck of oversize pearls and a feathered clutch purse. One guest, a fellow mother from the school where Vodianova’s kids are in attendance, wore an embroidered Christopher Kane number she had borrowed from her own business, Panoply City, a French fashion rental site. Joséphine de la Baume wore an earthy floor-length party dress, while Mariacarla Boscono sported a leather number, accentuating her slicked-back bright orange hair. Spotted on two tables were different Olympia Le-Tan clutches. When things seemingly couldn’t be better, a last round of indulgence came in the form of thin-crust pizzas and smoked bufala mozzarella. Reported to have raised £800k, the event delivered—even during the last five minutes.