Macy's Passport at 25: A Fashionable Party for the Cure
The notion of Elizabeth Taylor and $25 million sharing a room may sound like the plot for a movie. But the Hollywood icon and the fortune will be part of the story at Macy’s Passport Gala Evening, which will be held Sept. 27 at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif.
Taylor will be awarded the Passport’s “Humanitarian Award” at the party celebrating Macy’s Passport’s 25 years of raising funds for AIDS/HIV research. The department store said its charity effort has raised $25 million to fight the disease since 1988.
The gala will offer more Hollywood glamour. Sharon Stone will host an auction at the event; Dita von Teese will perform a burlesque show; and The Spirit of Uganda, a chorus of children orphaned by AIDS, will sing.
More than 1,600 people are expected to party at the cocktail hour before the show. The main event is an epic fashion show, which will feature styles by Ecko, Calvin Klein, Levi’s and student designers from the Academy of Art University.
The fashion show will end with silver-colored styles designed especially for Macy’s Passport’s silver anniversary. Designers contributing to this part of the show will be Anna Sui, Hugo Boss, Tracy Reese and Michael Kors.
Macy’s expects to do much of its fund-raising at this gala in Santa Monica and at a Sept. 20 event in San Francisco. However, the casual Macy’s consumer also has a chance to participate. Silver-anniversary passport items such as silver tote bags and silver pet collars have been on sale at 27 Macy’s stores since Aug. 20.
On Sept. 29, more than seven Macy’s will host the Passport-In-Store program, where shoppers can buy $10 tickets and get 10 percent to 20 percent discounts on certain items. Proceeds from the ticket sales will go to various AIDS research and care organizations.
For more information, visit www.macys.com. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster. Ticket prices for the Passport Gala Evening start at $75, according to the Ticketmaster Web site (www.ticketmaster.com). —Andrew Asch
