Star Maker
Moët & Chandon Presents Mario Testino With Its First Ever L'Etoile Award
Last night's fête for Mario Testino was like an episode of This Is Your Life for the photographer. Lucinda Chambers (who co-hosted the event with Amanda Harlech and Hamish Bowles) claimed she'd run into the man who loaned Mario and her a studio three decades ago when they were doing tests for magazines, long before the Vogues came calling. There were dozens of friends and collaborators from those days in attendance, but they were evenly balanced by the jeunesse dorée for whom Testino has become something of a house photographer.
Reason for the evening was L'Etoile, an award for general fabulousness newly established by Moët & Chandon. Testino is the first recipient. Michael Howells had erected a towering Champagne fountain in the ballroom of the Park Lane Hotel that reflected the party's glamorous theme—thirties black and white—rather more successfully than some of the guests, who'd clearly missed the memo about dressing up (although Marc Newson definitely didn't look everyday in his yellow corduroy suit). Still, the glamour quota was more than filled by the likes of longtime Mario muse Kate Moss, Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet, and a platinum-bobbed Abbey Lee Kershaw, who took to the floor for a creditable attempt at the Charleston. OK, that's twenties, but who's counting?
Anyway, Mario loves a good time whatever the decade. When he joined Sky Ferreira on stage to duet on his all-time disco fave "If You Could Read My Mind," his party-hearty enthusiasm more than made up for the lack of tune.
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