Jeffrey Fashion Cares 2019: 16th Anniversary!

Jeffrey Fashion Cares 2019 Celebrates 16th Anniversary at Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, NYC. Hosted by Jordan Roth and celebrated Stonewall’s 50th Anniversary.

Jeffrey Kalisnky welcomes with celebrities, famous faces and fashion influencers with a delightful event considering one of the most expected evenings on April celebrating 16 years of partnership with Elton John AIDS Foundation, Lambda Legal working for full civil rights for #LGBTQ people and everyone living with HIV and Ali Forney Center an America’s largest non-profit providing shelter and healthcare services to homeless LGBTQ youths.

The evening aims to raise awareness surrounding the people who live with HIV and AIDS, support LGBTQ youth and challenge discrimination against the LGBTQ community. Over the past 15 years of Jeffrey Fashion Cares’ existence, the event has raised a cumulative $6 million to $7 million as of 2018.

Jeffrey + Friends

The list is long, with so many famous celebrities the event reunite faces like Gus Kenworthy––official Elton John AIDS Foundation face––the athlete, who won the silver medal in slope-style at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, was one of two openly gay American competitors who walked in the Winter Olympics opening ceremony — the other, figure skater Adam Rippon. Kenworthy has yet another connection to the entertainment world: He has a role in the upcoming season of “American Horror Story.”

“My very good friend, Scott Campbell, is the executive director of the Elton John AIDS Foundation, and he asked me if I’d be in town,” said event cohost Judith Light, dressed in a springy look she’d picked up earlier from the Jeffrey boutique. “And I said, ‘I will make it my business to be here.’” The evening also honored Army veteran Staff Sgt. Cathrine Schmid, one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit contesting a recent ban against transgender people serving in the military. “Lambda Legal has brought the case against the Trump administration’s ban against transgender people serving in the military. What we’re talking about tonight  are organizations that really support the LGBTQ community,” Light stressed.

The origins of the event trace back to retailer Jeffrey Kalinsky, who started Fashion Cares in Atlanta 26 years ago before bringing it to New York 15 years ago.

“It started as an AIDS benefit, and no one was really doing much in that community in a major way to raise money for AIDS,” he said. “When I moved to New York — I’ll be honest, I was probably scared more than anything, intimidated — how you would do something like that here. I had a salesperson who was like a dog with a bone; he wanted me to have a men’s fashion show. I said I’d do it if it would be a charity benefit,” Kalinsky continued. “It’s all about trying to do a mitzvah, do some good.”