Billabong hosted another successful Design For Humanity fashion and street party extravaganza Wednesday night in the NY backlot at Paramount Studios in Hollywood.
Approximately 4,000 people attended, and the sold out event raised more than $120,000 for VH1’s Save the Music Foundation to help keep music education in schools.
It’s the fifth year for Design Humanity, and it’s amazing to see how the event has grown. It’s worth watching the short wrap up video to see what it was like and just how big it has become.
Here are some photos above from the night courtesy of Billabong and LookBookLA.
Below is the official press release wrap.
BILLABONG’S 5th ANNUAL “DESIGN FOR HUMANITY” BENEFIT
RAISES $120,000+ for “The VH1 Save The Music Foundation”!!!
On Wednesday June 15th, Billabong held its 5th annual Design For Humanity benefit bash (www.designforhumanity.com) on the legendary NY Street Backlot at Paramount Studios in Hollywood. The evening was a blast and a total success so far raising over $120,000 for the VH1 Save The Music Foundation. Athletes, tastemakers and celebrities that came out to support included Extreme Home Makover’s Ty Pennington, Holly’s World’s Holly Madison, Nikita’s Tiffany Hines, Sean Stewart, Three6Mafia, Men of a Certain Age’s Brittany Curran, Secret Life of the American Teenager’s Grant Ward, Billabong athletes Keala Kennelly, Jamie Anderson, Courtney Conlogue, Maya Gabeira and Greg Long.
The runway fashion show lead by Billabong design director Mandy Robinson, paid homage to this year’s charity, the VH1 Save the Music Foundation, with looks inspired by some of Billabong’s favorite artists, Mick Jagger, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, and Hendrix as well as favorite foxy muses like Uschi Obermaier and Pamela Courson. The styling was reminiscent of this Rock & Roll era with itsy bitsy snake bikinis, crochet dresses, cropped snake skin jackets, exaggerated bell bottoms, fringed hi-waisted shorts, and floor length sheer maxi dresses.
The sold out fashion-music-art block party was a blow out with indie gods Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros playing an incredible set and announcing it as their last in LA for the rest of the year, and rising rock & roll star Hanni El Khatib with his sinewy guitar and wry, whiskey-glazed voice killed it on the financial district stage.
As always there was a huge art element to Design for Humanity. Morgan Maassen, who worked with Billabong to shoot their team riders all over the world, created a “Soundwaves” photo exhibit with the photos and video playing on plasma screens from the various shoots. A massive pop-up gallery and art auction, curated by Daniel Chang and AR4T Gallery in Laguna, featured works by over 50 participating artists, including The Clayton Brothers, Jeff Soto, Dave Kinsey, and Tara McPherson. The remaining art will be available on charityfolks.com/designforhumanity for those unable to attend this year’s Design for Humanity to bid on.
The VH1 Save The Music Foundation created a one-of a kind guitar installation onsite, with signed instruments that went for auction. Taylor and Cordoba donated guitars with musicians; Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Natasha Bedingfield, and Donovan Frankenreiter all signing them. Additionally, Death Cab for Cutie signed and donated a Yamaha drum head, the Foo Fighters signed and donated a Gibson guitar.
Billabong’s Brand Director Candy Harris said about DHF 2011, “It was an absolutely amazing night, from the runway to the bands and artists. It was a proud moment for Billabong and the Vh1 Save The Music Foundation to see such a huge turn out of support for the event and our effort to keep music education in public schools”.
The VH1 Save The Music Foundation is thrilled. “We are extremely grateful to Billabong for letting us be a part of this incredible event,” said Paul Cothran, Executive Director of the VH1 Save The Music Foundation. “With their help we are one step closer to achieving our goal of ensuring that no child be deprived of access to a complete education that includes music.”
100% of this year’s ticket sales and proceeds from art show and product collaboration auction sales will be donated to The VH1 Save the Music Foundation (https://www.vh1savethemusic.com/), a non-profit organization dedicated to restoring instrumental music education in America’s public schools, and raising awareness about the importance of music as part of each child’s complete education. To date, the Foundation has provided more than $47 million in new musical instruments to 1,750 public schools in more than 100 cities around the country, impacting the lives of over 1.6 million children.
This year’s event is sponsored by Verizon Wireless, Skullcandy, Chipotle, Vitamin Water and The VH1 Save The Music Foundation.
