There is a lot going on at Donna Karan International right now. Besides hiring Public School’s Maxwell Osborne and Dao-Yi Chow as DKNY’s new creative directors, the company has also taken on former Apple creative director of worldwide marketing communications Hector Muelas as the company’s newly created chief image officer. DKI’s longtime chief of marketing and PR Patti Cohen also stepped down after more than 30 years at the company. But for all the business and changes at the house Donna Karan built, the designer herself still has time for charitable endeavors. Last night, Karan hosted the 6th annual spring event for Solving Kid’s Cancer, a charity which focuses on raising money for aggressive and hard to treat childhood cancers.
“As a woman, as a mother, as a grandmother, the idea of it is practically unacceptable,” Karan told us, passionately explaining her involvement with the charity. “To think that I or any of my friends could be faced with such a horrendous situation having children with cancer – who would want a child of any circumstance in that situation? Who would want a loved one to be in that situation? It’s heart-wrenching.”
YAAAAAAS @Caitlyn_Jenner!!!’ WORK THAT DONNA KARAN!!! pic.twitter.com/meAUNu3tr6
— Jami Miller (@jamizfoshiz) June 1, 2015
Though we were on hand for a solemn cause, Karan was down to chat about some good news: her label was amongst the first to clothe Caitlyn Jenner, who is pictured in Vanity Fair hopping out of a snazzy sports car in a slinky red Donna Karan dress with mesh paneling. It was a big moment for Caitlyn and a big moment for the Donna Karan brand. “Didn’t she look great? She killed that dress!” Donna gushed. “She looked absolutely beautiful and it was really well-received. Not only that, but she felt good and I think she looked beautiful, and that is what is most important.”
Though she was willing to chat about Caitlyn, Karan did stay pretty mum on the status of her forthcoming book, My Journey, coming in October from publisher Ballantine books. She wouldn’t give us any details but revealed, “It’s definitely a story from beginning to end.”
We can’t wait to read it.
