Kicking off New York Fashion Week, the Couture Council of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology honored shoe designer and legend Manolo Blahnik with the 2015 Couture Council Award for Artistry of Fashion. “Manolo Blahnik is one of the world’s greatest shoe designers—and a true artist of fashion,” said Valerie Steele, director of The Museum at FIT and chair of the Counter Council Advisory Board. “It was Manolo who kicked off contemporary fashion’s obsession with shoes, as viewers of Sex and the City will recall.”
As a surprise, actress Uma Thurman presented the award to Blahnik, her longtime friend. The likes of Anna Wintour, Carolina Herrera, Martha Stewart, and Alec Baldwin also came out to show their support. Underwritten by the Spanish Tourism Board, the annual luncheon raised more than $1 million for The Museum at FIT, the only museum in New York City solely dedicated to the art of fashion. The International New York Times, the Washington Post, WWD, Harper’s Bazaar, People, and , among others, covered the day’s success. As an added bonus, the luncheon made a huge splash on social media with approximately 150,000 Facebook impressions and 13.1 million Twitter impressions.