FASHION Magazine

See all the photos from the TIFF 2013 amfAR gala »

“I have Spanx on top of pantyhose and I’m about to have a hose stroke,” Beth Ditto winced as she took the stage at the TIFF 2013 amfAR gala on Sunday night.

Still the Gossip singer and M.A.C Cosmetics collaborator blew the roof off The Carlu, first with her own set, then in a duet of Dolly Parton’s “Here You Come Again” with emcee Alan Cumming.

Adrien Brody, Maria Bello and Paul Haggis were among those in the crowd which was also treated to a showing of menswear by Marc Jacobs and a rousing auction. Okay, so it may not have been quite as exciting as the amfAR benefit in Cannes in May, when Brody took the Cartier watch off his wrist and auctioned it off for $100,000. Still, two Toronto ladies pushed the bidding up to $22,000 for a night of New York bar-hopping with Cumming.

See the Maison Martin Margiela for H&M launch party photos »
See the Maison Martin Margiela for H&M collection photos»

Leave it to Maison Martin Margiela to choose a dilapidated 9-storey building hidden within New York’s financial district to house the launch event for its upcoming collaboration with H&M. To say “event” is to put it simply—performance art installation/dance party/pop-up shop would explain last night a little better. Each floor of 5 Beekman Street was reimagined as some sort of exhibit, with dancers choreographed by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker making art pieces from the aftermath of dancing around on a floor covered in white sand. Elsewhere, installations by Daniel Arsham, Frederique Chauveaux and Noemie Goudal brought the Margiela collaboration pieces to life, by projecting tableaus and hand gestures right on the pieces themselves. Atop the building, a pop-up shop stocked with the Maison Martin Margiela for H&M collection was swarmed by the 1,500 guests trying to snag a purchase in advance of the re-edition collection launching in stores on November 15.