Arts & Culture LA Charities

A Pop Rock Dream of Beauty: The 2007 Style LA Fashion Benefit at the Viceroy

Cash for your car

Next ModelOn Monday evening, July 30th, the annual Style LA fashion benefit took place at the Viceroy Hotel in Santa Monica. Actress Shiva Rose McDermott and Samantha Harris of E! Entertainment co-hosted the evening that began with a poolside reception and sponsor gallery and culminated in a playfully classic swim and resort wear runway show that featured collections from Sonya Vera, Vitamin A, Edwards Lowell, Ami Sanzuri, Gottex, Gideon Oberson, Monique Leshman, Plush Premium Denim, Single, Christian Lacroix, John Galliano, and Claudie Sung. The event benefited Stop the Violence/Face the Music and was presented by CUUR, a botanical dietary supplement from Sweden, making it a night about personal optimization: looking your best, wearing beautiful clothes, and being peaceful.

The event’s 500 attendees were made up of amicably glamorous people from the worlds of fashion and entertainment. Guests in attendance included actress Constance Marie of The George Lopez Show, actress Tichina Arnold of Everybody Hates Chris, NBA basketball player Tyson Chandler, reality TV stars Leilene and Jo De La Rosa, soap opera stars Eileen Davidson and Jerry Douglas, actor Jason Earles of Hannah Montana, actress Joy Lauren of Desperate Housewives, and designer Jennifer Nicholson. Flirtatious models from the Next agency rocked the perfectly lit over-the-pool runway wearing, according to model Tiffany Horn, "bathing suits I’d definitely buy." Model Renee Puente sparkled bright with her unique impeccable look and Latin sex pop energy and let us know that, "Yeah, I enjoy my job." The male models had less to say, but Matt the model thought long and broken-nose pretty and let reporters know that, "Next time I’ll have something smart and clever for you." Actress Constance Marie was impressed by the light elegance of the sundresses shown on the runway that she thought, "make you look skinny and cover where you’re maybe not so skinny." She also loved the complimentary hand-stitched Bolo shoes she was gifted which she described as very comfortable and "good for the day" and went on to compare them to the bejeweled shoes she wore to the event, "Don’t get me wrong, my Giuseppe Zanotti’s are fabulous, they’re just not squishy." Tyson Chandler of the New Orleans Hornets was focused on the event’s social theme and stated that, "The world needs to be woken up. There is so much stuff going on in the world other than what’s right now in your face."

CUUR

The event’s charitable beneficiary, Stop the Violence/Face the Music, is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1992 and is committed to decreasing violence, crime, and substance abuse. The organization is most well-known for its past public awareness commercials on MTV and has also worked together with Warner Brothers and Billboard. In addition to its public awareness campaigns, Matt the ModelStop the Violence/Face the Music also provides counseling services, literature, and educational programs in communities across the United States and Canada.

CUUR, this year’s Style LA event presenter, is an all-natural weight-loss supplement made by Scandinavian Clinical Nutrition that contains botanical extracts of green tea, yerba matte, birch leaf, and the coleus forskohlii root. CUUR "simply makes weight loss easier" and, according to celebrity LA trainer Valerie Waters, "curbs your sugar and carbohydrate cravings and is effective without making you feel jittery." According to CUUR president Gwen Kent, "You can’t go on a diet, you have to change your lifestyle," and CUUR helps naturally jumpstart and support the motivation needed to eat well and exercise and really lose the weight for good. CUUR believes in marketing itself in ways that benefit the world and also recently sponsored a charity golf event for the Fight Forever Foundation, an organization dedicated to curing cystic fibrosis.
As the evening came to a close, Vitamin A designer Amahlia Stevens said that she was, "aesthetically proud of the collaboration of this event." When informed that one of the models had professed her affection for Vitamin A swimsuits, Amahlia agreed that her swimsuit designs, "have something that people who can have anything want." The ambition and quality of luxurious fashion is sometimes written off as superficially frivolous and even demonized as a decadent excitor of envy, but this pessimistic anti-fabulous perspective did not reign over this hot friendly LA night at the Viceroy. Tonight was a night where fashion strutted sexy for peace in belief that the world is a place where beauty inspires beauty and contributes to a better world.Model Renee Puente

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The Style LA event included an open bar courtesy of Hypnotic and Pama Liqueur. Other sponsors included 10 Thousand B.C. Water, Amarin Aromatherapy, Born & Bolo Footwear, Floris of London, Izze, Opalescence treswhite Supreme, and Ziba Beauty. This TMG International produced event also gave special thanks for the contributions of FIDM, Next Model Management, Mike Guestella, DJ Splyce, Wilcox Sound and Design, stylist Gwyn Viskovich, and make-up artist Timothy Priano.

Style LA: www.StyleLA.net
Stop the Violence/Face the Music: www.stv.com
CUUR: www.cuur.com
Next Model Management: www.nextmodels.com

About the author

Jamie Fisher