We’re big fans of W’s back page, which depicts glamorous black and white snapshots from fashion’s most fabulous party of the moment.
For the September issue, the featured fete was Natalia Vodianova’s fairytale-themed ball, which we remember quite well from the fanciful outfits.
Playing hostess kept the model quite occupied, leaving her no time for even one drink. Which is shame, said Natalia to W:
“I actually love the feeling of a hangover. It’s not often that I allow myself to be like that, so I don’t fight it. I just take a Berocca vitamin and a walk — and enjoy it.”
We find it hard to believe someone could actually love a hangover, but then again Natalia is Russian, so she and vodka must be on good speaking terms.
Natalia did have an opportunity to let loose recently on her Ibiza escape with new boyfriend Antoine Arnault. The son of LVMH boss Bernard Arnault, Antoine was spotted with the model and her son on the beach, confirming that Natalia has indeed moved on from husband Justin Portman.
Now she has a new man to party with… and nurse hangovers with.
Read more about Natalia’s party in the September issue of W.
Playing happy families, bat and ball in hand, children alongside playfully running through the waves, Antoine Arnault cut the dashing – and rather doting – father figure while on holiday with top model Natalia Vodianova and her brood while in Ibiza last week.
The 34-year-old son of LVMH owner Bernard , who works as the luxury conglomerate’s communications director and group administrator, has been confirmed as the Russian model’s new lover. Until earlier this year, Antoine had been dating French actress Hélène de Fougerolles.
Vodianova, 29, split from her real estate heir husband Justin Portman, last year. The pair married in 2002 and have three children, two sons aged nine and three, and a daughter aged five.
It is thought Antoine and Natalia got to know one another as Vodianova worked closely with the Louis Vuitton brand, walking in catwalk shows and starring in recent advertising campaigns.In June, while Antoine’s identity was still a closely-guarded secret, she revealed in an interview with the Evening Standard that she was “defintely” in love with someone new. When asked about her separation from Portman, she described their separation as “really sad,” adding: “Our children are very much aware of it. It’s OK. We’re still in a very sensitive position right now, and trying to do things as amicably as possible, so I wouldn’t want to talk about it at all. I don’t think I will ever want to, because it’s strictly between my husband and me”.
Best known as the face of countless covers and ad campaigns, this mother of three has also devoted her life to a cause dear to her heart. Vodianova talks to D’NA about giving back to her native Russia and her first trip to the Middle East.
Why did you decide to establish a foundation?
I’ve been very fortunate in my life and career, and I wanted to make a positive contribution to my country. I founded the Naked Heart Foundation five years ago to give underprivileged children in Russia the gift of play. The idea came to me after the Beslan school siege in 2004.The Naked Heart Foundation believes that playing is a necessity, not a luxury, and that every child should have a secure environment in which to play. To date the foundation has built 54 playgrounds in 38 Russian cities, including facilities in orphanages, rehabilitation centers and children’s hospitals. The need for such facilities in Russia is enormous, where more than 25% of the population has salaries below subsistence level. Furthermore, the authorities don’t provide play facilities in a country where the poorest are typically families with children.
Any future plans for the Naked Heart Foundation?
This year we’re launching a new program called Every Child Deserves to have a Family, providing essential support to families of children with special needs. This is a cause that’s particularly close to my heart. My sister Oksana has cerebral palsy, and I’ve experienced firsthand how little support there is for children with special needs in my country. Without support many of these kids are often abandoned in state institutions where they languish.How do you generate funds for the foundation?
Our main fundraiser is the annual Love Ball. The first one was held in Moscow in 2008, and raised $5 million. It was the most successful charitable fundraiser in the history of Russian philanthropy.This year’s fundraiser, The White Fairy Love Ball, was our most spectacular to date. It was held on July 6th at the couturier Valentino Garavani’s Chateau de Wideville in Paris and offered a rare opportunity to visit his archives. The gala dinner brought together some 450 friends of the foundation, including international celebrities from the worlds of fashion, business, film and art.
The highlight of the evening was a fashion show featuring more than 40 custom-designed dresses created by the world’s top designers, which were auctioned that same evening, with 100% of the proceeds benefiting the Naked Heart Foundation.
Have you ever visited the Middle East?
My first trip to the Middle East was last November, when the Naked Heart Foundation was invited to be a beneficiary of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Ball. That particular visit left a big impression on me. It was almost like landing on another planet, with Yas Island’s fantastical architecture and its multi-cultural inhabitants. Unfortunately it was a very short trip, and there was so much of the culture and country I still wanted to explore. I hope to visit again someday.”
Natalia managed to raise €2.3 million last night! Congratulations Natalia!
Like white birds against the green lawns, fashion’s high society migrated to Valentino’s chateau outside of Paris. The summer dress code of silver and white was designed to blend into the snowy scene, as the transparent tent under towering trees was opened for the White Fairy Tale Love Ball.
Natalia Vodianova, the Russian model and dedicated fund-raiser, made her entrance in a blood-red Valentino gown, the better to underscore her Naked Heart Foundation. The charity, dedicated to building playgrounds for impoverished children, mainly in Russia, raised €2.3 million, or $3.3 million, from the festivities Wednesday. And an emotional Ms. Vodianova announced that her charity would take on a second role: developing play places for special needs children like her own sister.
Couture designers blessed the event with dresses expressing their vision of a fairy tale, outfits worn by models on a the runway sprinkled with fake snow and later auctioned off.
Many of the designers had gathered earlier in the evening, first at the Élysée Palace, where President Nicolas Sarkozy presented the award of Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur to Anna Wintour, the editor of American Vogue; and afterward at the reception at the U.S. Embassy in Paris, where the lineup of guests was a who’s who of fashion.
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Miscellaneous > The White Fairy Tale Love Ball Fitting
Vogue was witness to a magical moment behind closed doors yesterday afternoon. The rendezvous at the Musée Nissim de Camodo, was between Valentino Garavani and Natalia Vodianova, meeting in secret to make final tweaks to the fantasy dress the grand couturier has made for her to wear tonight. Guests invited to Vodianova’s White Fairy Tale Love Ball have already scoured Paris and their vintage wardrobes to adhere to a “Silver and White” dress code, as they get ready for an evening at Valentino’s country residence at Wideville, credit cards flexed, to bid on 45 dresses donated by an A–Z of international designers.
Valentino has lent Vodianova the gardens of his Chateau de Wideville, for an assembly of the super-rich she intends to entice to meet the five-million-euro record she set in Moscow, at the 2008 launch of her Russian playgrounds-for-children project, The Naked Heart Foundation. “People are coming from all over—Moscow, Saint-Tropez, Tuscany,” she said, fielding calls about table placements as she walked in. “They’re breaking their holidays for this. It’s amazing.”
Russian supermodel Natalia Vodianova spends most of her time looking exquisitely beautiful. It stands to reason that she might have a few insider tips, or a few beauty secrets in her arsenal to let us in on. And she does! We picked Vodianova’s brain and snooped inside her makeup bag to find out what one of the most beautiful women in the world uses to enhance her looks.
Natalia Vodianova’s life is not quite the fairy tale that fashion myth suggests.
The Russian model was not spotted by a scout while selling vegetables at a stall in her home city of Nizhni Novgorod. She was picked out at a casting in Moscow after joining an agency.
The reality of her life from age 11 was lugging boxes of apples or pears (“They were the heaviest ,” the model said.), between running back to the impoverished family apartment to check on her disabled half-sister, who has cerebral palsy.
“I was responsible since I was six,” said Ms. Vodianova, 29, lowering her glacier-blue eyes as she described the “humiliation” of coping with her sister’s “pee, pooh and dribble,” her wanton trashing of Natalia’s school books, and the endless walking through the mean neighborhood, the only concrete space with monkey bars and bench hijacked by beer-drinking teenagers.
“A playground would have been a dream for me — I didn’t have anywhere to take my sister,” she said, explaining the origins of her Naked Heart Foundation (www.nakedheart.org), which has built 60 play parks in 44 Russian cities.
Life has been bittersweet for the young woman who has reached the summit of modeling but seen her marriage to the British aristocrat Justin Portman end in separation.
