When Wella North America CEO Reuben Carranza approached Editor in Chief Kelley Donahue and me with a request to serve on his Dinner Committee for the City of Hope Spirit of Life Gala, we were honored. After learning his platform would be diabetes research and Hope Is In Style his campaign theme, we knew we wanted to do more. We began bouncing around ideas before coming up with 12 Dresses X 12 Designers, a novel way to celebrate the worlds of fashion and beauty and unite them for a worthwhile cause. Since Carranza designated blue as the official color for his campaign’s fight against diabetes, we told him we would contact our friends in the fashion business and ask them if they would donate a favorite blue dress they had designed.
The response was overwhelming. Here’s a look at the lines by the designers who graciously contributed:
| Chagoury Couture | Tracy Reese |
| Jenni Kayne | Robert Rodriguez |
| Hervé Léger | Cynthia Rowley |
| Nanette Lepore | Rebecca Taylor |
| Nicole Miller | Trina Turk |
| Dita Von Teese | Rachel Zoe |
We decided the next step was to make this a print campaign. We asked our friend and colleague Albert Sanchez to photograph the dresses. Sanchez is a renowned lens master whose work has been showcased in leading beauty and fashion publications. From there, we contacted Wilhelmina who volunteered the talents of two models to serve as muses at our mid-May photo shoot in Hollywood, CA. Judging by the results on pages 33 to 38, we couldn’t be more thrilled. Big ideas require the efforts of many. In addition to all the designers, Sanchez and our Wella point of contact for the project Fred Wu, I’d personally like to thank Creative Director Pedro Zalba; Hairstylist Aubrey Loots; Makeup Artist Taylor Chang-Babaian; models Meagan Lee and Sadie; Fashion Stylist Jerome C. Rousseau for shoes; Gaspar for the gloves; and Studio Manager Raul Bonilla for their generosity, time, energy and effort in bringing our 12 Dresses X 12 Designers project to life. I’d also be remiss if I neglected to once again thank Reuben Carranza for carrying the torch for diabetes research. His passion, tenacity and commitment should be an inspiration to all of us. ✂ —Brett Vinovich, publisher, [email protected]