Fashion and football unite to raise €2.7 million for Natalia Vodianova’s Naked Heart

No one can ever accuse Kylian Mbappé of being a tightwad. The star footballer bid €520,000 for a Hopare oil painting of soccer legend Pelé in a charity auction for Naked Heart France on Thursday night.
 

Mbappé, who showed up with the entire squad of Paris Saint Germain (PSG), also audibly encouraged his fellow teammates like Keylor Navas and Ousmane Dembélé to bid big on several purchases at the soiree. The entire team dressed razor sharp in black silk Dior men double-breasted suits by Kim Jones.
 
Staged in luxurious Place Vendôme, the black-tie evening attracted a slew of designers – Olivier Rousteing, Christian Louboutin and Giambattista Valli, who showed up with his son. One of a dozen youngsters, including Vodianova’s third son Max Arnault, for whom Mbappé sportingly signed autographs.

Entitled Paris For Good the evening was to benefit two charities Naked Heart France and PSG For Communities; and jointly hosted by PSG CEO Nasser Al-Khelaïfi and Al Mayassa bint Hamad Al Thani, the sister of Qatar’s ruling Emir and Chairperson of that nation’s museums.
 
“On the way here tonight, I was listening to Madonna sing “Music brings the people together. Music turns bourgeois’ into rebels!” Or am I the only person in the room old enough to remember that? I think the same about football, this beautiful sport that really unites the bourgeoisie and the rebels… And I’d like to thank my husband, who taught me just how crazy people can be about football!” said Vodianova of her spouse Antoine Arnault, eldest son of LVMH luxury emperor, €100 billion man Bernard Arnault.
 

Founded 20 years ago, Naked Heart was designed by Vodianova to create safe social centres and parks for children with special needs. Opening first in her native Russia, it has gone on to build 215 Naked Heart spaces in over 160 towns. PSG For Communities uses sporting values like fairness, solidarity and respect in providing education programs and supporting empowerment for kids facing difficulties in deprived communities. It has reached over 300,000 children and adolescents in the past 25 years.
 
Part of the Naked Heart funds raised will go to the adaptation of a WHO-developed Caregiver Skills Training Program in France. While those for PSG For Communities will support a new Rouge & Bleu – the PSG colors – school inside Necker, Paris’ main children’s hospital.
 
“We need to use the power of football to helps kids. God gave us this gift and we need to use it to inspire people, to bring peace to the world and to bring people together,” said Al-Khelaïfi before an audience that included Wallis Day, Miss Fame and Bianca Brandolini.
 
People bid on the right to kick off a PSG match; tours of cognac; a signed ball and jersey by Mbappé; fashion photos by Luigi & Iango and front row seats to a Christian Dior show. As entertainment, comedian Tina Friml staged a witty routine about living and performing with cerebral palsy, with lines like: “I usually judge a New York bar based on what drugs the bouncers thinks I am on!” Before Tom Odell played a series of torch songs on his piano.
 
LVMH brands were active supporters of the soirée: guests could bid on Rimowa wine cases; or go on safari staying in the Mount Nelson, the legendary hotel own by its Belmond group. They sipped on Moët Chandon champagne; were gifted scented candles by Loewe; and dined on lobster salad, filet de volaille and macaroni tartufo washed down by LVMH wines, Cloudy Bay Sauvignon and Terrazas de los Andes Malbec.