Wendy Yu Rings in Chinese New Year at Kensington Palace
RED, SHE SAID: “It’s passion, it’s fire, it’s energy,” said designer Huishan Zhang, describing the virtues of red — the color of the night — at Wendy Yu’s Chinese New Year dinner at Kensington Palace.
The dress code was black tie, with a touch of red and the Orient, and guests — including Angelica Cheung, Caroline Rush, Samantha Cameron, Mary Katrantzou, Simone Rocha, Erdem Moralio?lu, Emilia Wickstead and Sandra Choi — took it in all different directions, flashing red fingernails, shoes, earrings, pocket squares, sequins and lips. Zhang dressed Yu for the evening in a cotton and lace tiered red dress with a black belt.
“Where is my red? I don’t know. I always wear black,” said Katrantzou, who was dressed in Azzedine Ala?a and who recently welcomed Yu onboard as an investor. She has several trips planned to China in the coming year in a bid to drum up business there.
Even the King’s Gallery, where the dinner took place, was dressed appropriately with its pink-red fabric walls. Yu filled her table with painted fans for each guest, red roses and matching envelopes that weren’t filled with the lucky cash, but with pledges to Women for Women International and Teach for China, two of her favorite charities.
“It’s the Year of the Dog,” said Yu, the philanthropist, investor and socialite, “which you might have gathered from the napkins.” In fact, the napkins — each embroidered with a little dog — were the only things that weren’t red.
The dinner — which also featured traditional Chinese musicians and dancers with a long dragon puppet — also marked the launch of Yu Holdings, which will invest in companies, technology, philanthropy, fashion, and arts and culture, with the aim of strengthening ties between China and the rest of the world.
Launch Gallery: Inside Wendy Yu's Chinese New Year Dinner at Kensington Palace
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