Film stars, models hit Cannes charity catwalk for Japan
(CBS/AP) Supermodel Naomi Campbell summoned a host of her celebrity pals to take part in a charity fashion show in aid of Japan during the Cannes Film Festival on Monday.
Jane Fonda, Rosario Dawson, Grace Hightower, who's married to the president of this year's Cannes jury, Robert De Niro, and Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic were among the A-listers who hit the catwalk and strutted their stuff for a good cause.
Pictures: Fashion for Relief at Cannes
Pictures: Cannes Film Festival 2011
Campbell's Fashion for Relief charity organized the Monday show and an auction that followed to raise money for the Japanese Red Cross to aid victims of the recent earthquake and tsunami.
Scores of celebrities, already in town for the film festival, turned out to support Campbell's event, while a small army of models donated their time, walking in red carpet-ready looks from Lanvin, Jean Paul Gaultier, Sonia Rykiel, Valentino and a bevy of other top labels.
From her front-row perch, Ivana Trump hailed the decision to hold the show in Cannes during the 12-day-long film festival here as "a brilliant choice.
"All the rich people are in town for the festival, people in movies and in fashion, so they can reach into their pockets and give money to help," said the pregnant Trump, looking elegant in a black minidress with a bedazzled dipping neckline.
She said she hadn't yet seen any movies but planned to spend the final six days of the prestigious cinema showcase shuttling between her homes in Cannes, Monaco and Saint Tropez while attending some select films.
Another audience member, designer Peter Dundas - whose label Pucci has long been considered an iconic brand in Japan - said he'd turned out for Monday's event because "Japan's disaster is our disaster.
"More than ever, we can't think that just because something happens on the other side of the world it doesn't concern us. Of course it does," he said.
Editor-in-cheif of Japanese Vogue Anna Della Russo said the "it's in the Japanese character to be really strong and optimistic" but "they really do need help."
Asked whether she thought the disaster would affect the Japanese's notoriously extravagant sense of style, the envelope-pushing style maven exclaimed, "I hope not because they're so crazy about fashion like me and I don't want that to change."
