Place a bid and you will have the opportunity to receive advice from Tim Gunn over lunch with five friends, meet Reed Krakoff at his Spring 2012 Fashion Show and have the designer create you a One-of-a-Kind, Custom Boxer Handbag, attend the Elton John AIDS Foundation’s Academy Awards Viewing Party, or own a pair of diamond encrusted 18k gold Oliver Peoples Harlot sunglasses! The auction comprises of 102 lots, with diverse offerings in fashion, travel, music, art, sports and even internship opportunities.

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Place bids before April 28, you can meet legendary VOGUE Editor in Chief, Anna Wintour and attend a photo shoot for the magazine….I’m already daydreaming about my Paris trip on Mr. Lauren’s tab!

Online catalogue accessible via: http://www.charitybuzz.com/auctions/fashionandfriendsforjapan

Whether it’s for your hipster boyfriend or stylish grandpa, Playdate Custom-made bicycles make a sophisticated and healthy gift.   $599, proceeds go to Playdatebuilds, an organization set up by the bicycle maker to train under-privileged youth in the craft of bike making and maintenance.

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Not just another red product, these headphones might just transform your quiet surroundings into a night club, well maybe not literally, but you get the idea!  A portion of the profits from the Beats Solo HD (PRODUCT)REDSpecial Edition headphones will go straight to the Global Fund to fight AIDS in Africa. Proprietary titanium coated driver technology ensures they preserve every bit of the lush bass and vital details of your music. Plus, the ingenious tri-fold design make for easy storage when not in use. Solo HD’s cable also features Monster ControlTalk™ for iPod® playback control and iPhone™/music phone hands-free calling, get hooked up at beatsbydre.com for $229..

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A freshwater project can provide an entire community with clean, safe drinking water. If you donate on someone’s behalf, you’ll be able to print or email a personalized card to the lucky person. When the project is complete (in 12-18 months), we’ll send you both photos, GPS coordinates and information about the finished project.  Find out more at charity: water and give the gift of clean drinking water by sponsoring a water project for $5,000.

Anna Wintour's 2nd annual fashion event to be help Sept 10, 2010

Fashion’s Night Out is back by popular demand. On September 10, 2010 plan on spending the evening with your friends shopping for good! Anna Wintour’s 2nd annual global event will have participating retailers (which practically means every single brand and boutique in NYC at least!) staying open late into the evening, hosting cocktail parties, product launches, special designer/celebrity appearances and more.

There will also be an epic public fashion show, involving over 200 models and 1,500 random ticket-holding guests (show will be held September 7 at New York Fashion Week’s new home, Lincoln Center). 40% of the ticket proceeds (as well as the FNO 2010 clothing line) will go to the New York City AIDS Fund.

Last year, I went to Bergdorf with my boyfriend and got to see Manolo Blahnik and Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen! It’s definitely a star-studded evening with lots of glitz. Dress up and find some great styles for Fall, support the retail industry in this economy and feel great that the money you spend goes to some great causes!

Each of the products below is offered by a company that contributes part of the price to a charity, add these items to your wish list this season:

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Rose Anne de Pampelonne silk Coralia Crave tunic Price upon request

Ten percent of each sale goes to I Can Serve to benefit women in Phillippines who have breast cancer.  Based in Paris, De Pampelonne’s works take inspiration from the local handicrafts and traditional embroideries of far-flung locales like Tibet, India, and her native Philippines.  This item is travel ready and perfect for all types of occasions, a classic your suitcase must not close without!

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Toms Orange Calypso Canvas Wedges $69

The newest and tallest member of the TOMS family, the Wedge. The world’s first heels with heart, in orange stripe.

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Joan Hornig 18-K gold, white-topaz Potato Chip earrings $1,750

All net profits benefit charities of the buyer’s choice

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Elie Tahari Monique Melody cork tote $398

Twenty percent of the net proceeds go to God’s Love We Deliver, a NYC group that  prepares  meals for those with HIV/AIDS and other illnesses.

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Brette Sandler for Hat Attack $95

Twenty-five percent of each sale goes to the Skin Cancer Foundation.  Swimwear designer Brette Sandler partners with Hat Attack to create a limited-edition UV protective beach hat in order to raise awareness and support for the Foundation.

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Valentino jersey-and-lace T-shirt $395

All proceeds go to the Francesca Rava Foundation for the children of Haiti.

The T-shirt was first promoted at Milan fashion week in February and has become a permanent item in the Valentino online store.

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Harry Winston platinum and diamond Guggenheim ring $26,000

Part of the New York Collection, among traffic and skyscrapers stands one of New York’s favorite monument and architectural icon, the ring is a sweet souvenir of New York and shows your commitment to the arts.  A portion of the proceeds goes to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.

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See July 2010 issue of Town & Country for more ideas

As we all know, the tragic earthquake in Haiti is still causing great suffering; it will take years to re-build the state’s economy and infrastructure. One of the most important matters to prioritize in the re-building is their health care system for women and children, which is exactly what this year’s Fashion for Relief aims to do through raising money for CARE.

CARE is a non-profit specializing in fighting global poverty as it affects women. Their focus is on women because women have the power to “assist their families and communities in escaping poverty.” CARE works to “improve basic education, prevent the spread of HIV, increase access to clean water and sanitation, expand economic opportunity and protect natural resources.” The organization also provides aid to victims of conflict and natural disasters.

This year’s show, with host Sarah Ferguson (Duchess of York), will be Friday, February 12th in the tents at Bryant Park during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.

The event is open to the public with tickets starting around $100. You can purchase tickets online through Ticketmaster. 100% of ticket sales will be donated to CARE. The donated garments will be auctioned online through NET-A-PORTER starting February 15th.

The first Fashion for Relief event took place in 2005 to benefit the victims of Hurricane Katrina; it raised over $1M. Way to go!

Women’s Wear Daily published an interesting interview this week with Charity: water’s Scott Harrison about luxury brands’ role (right now and in the future) in world-wide philanthropy.

Here is an excerpt:

WWD: How have your collaborations with fashion companies helped?

S.H.: Our most successful campaign has been with Saks Fifth Avenue. [Since 2008, the retailer has sold $5 rubber bracelets at various outlets, with 100 percent of proceeds going to Charity: Water.] We raised about $700,000 — enough to bring clean water to 140 communities. You’ll see us continue to do more with Saks. We’ve done stuff with Miss Sixty. We did a great campaign with Theory that raised $80,000 for Ethiopia.

WWD: How would you characterize the fashion industry as opposed to another group in terms of fund-raising?

S.H.: I think the fashion industry has very high standards for the kinds of organizations that it’ll support. I think that might hint at why we’ve been successful. When we started this, design was so important to us. Just because we’re a charity, why should our Web site look bad? Our attention to detail, to design, using large-scale photography [has helped].

WWD: How important are products and merchandise?

S.H.: It’s not a huge part of the bottom line, but it’s really important for awareness. We’d like to work with more brands. I think there’s a merchandising piece that we’ve started to explore with Saks but there’s a lot more. We haven’t really gone to full scale.

To read about what Monique Pean, Swarvoski and Saks have done specifically for Charity: water, click here.

It’s so great to hear about the real results of what luxury can do for a charity and what we as consumers can start just by shopping!

Official 2009 t-shirt, $30 - 40% of proceeds donated to National September 11 Memorial

Make sure to go shopping tonight – Sept 10th - to support retail in this economy, check out the new Fall collections, celebrate fashion AND support charity! Anna Wintour’s global event – Fashion’s Night Out 2009 – will have participating retailers (which in NYC, means everyone as Anna demands respect!) staying open late into the evening and hosting cocktail parties, product launches, special designer/celebrity appearances and more.

The event t-shirts, commissioned specifically for NYC, are available at participating retailers and 40% of the proceeds from the sales are donated by the retailer to the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.

Also, remember to clean out your closets for Fall as NYC is also having a clothing drive. You can drop off past season’s mistakes or otherwise unwanted clothing at these places until 11pm. The clothing will all be given to the NYC AIDS Fund, which will in turn be distributed to 17 AIDS-related charities in the city.

Between work, family, friends and keeping up with celebrity gossip (not being sarcastic, I read every single one of those magazines at the office), we are easily overloaded with information to process and matters to prioritize. So it’s no wonder that we often overlook others’ adversity – especially when the magnitude of the injustice and  inequality makes us believe that there is not much we can do.

We’re not asking you to give up the fun, indulgent aspects of life because others are not as fortunate. I enjoy shopping and truly some purchases do make me quite happy (e.g. porcupine quill mirror, strappy Lanvin pumps – seriously, I smile when I come home to them after work).

We all work hard and have every right to indulge and spend our money as we see fit.

However, through this site, we are asking you to please keep in mind that we are all extremely lucky. For me, it’s easy to forget this as seemingly everywhere I look in Manhattan, I discover people who are smarter, more talented, more successful than I am or think I ever will be!

But, no matter how advantaged these people may be today, if – by Chance - they would have been born in an impoverished or politically corrupt country, their prospects of ever rising out of poverty would have been considerably diminished from the start.

Furthermore, due to changing demographic, environmental and fiscal dynamics (The Economist reports that rich countries will be in so much public debt by 2014 that the average government will owe $50,000 for every one of their citizens), rich countries will become less able to administer aid to poor countries and their people.

Thus, the privilege to assist these people through charity, infrastructure, trade and education will be placed in the hands of the private sector.

Companies have the responsibility to rise to the occasion. This site focuses on luxury brands because they often have unbelievable profit margins and extract precious natural resources for vanity.  But more importantly, their iconic products can quickly become not only a symbol of status, but also a symbol of humanity.

If we as consumers can shift our preferences to products with a purpose and reward philanthropic brands with our purchasing power – we can collectively make a difference.

This blog is asking you to Make Luxury Count.

LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton S.A. Chairman and CEO, Bernard Arnault has predicted a more discerning luxury consumer emerging from the world-wide recession. He predicts that they will demand quality, craftsmanship, creativity and exclusivity from luxury brands. But they will also expect commitment to social and environmental responsibility. – June 15, 09 WWD

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