Charles Finch’s Cap d’Antibes dinner is practically a fashion Davos

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
May 22, 2017

It felt like a luxury summit in the Eden Roc this weekend so numerous were the fashion players and luxury billionaires at Charles Finch’s annual dinner. Which this season honored Italian director Paolo Sorrentino, a Cannes jury member this year.

 
“I am a maverick and this room is filed with people who are really mavericks. From Arnold Schwarzenegger (who came with a cigar in one hand and an iPad in the other) to Johnny Pigozzi to Nicky Lauda. They interest me because they have a different point of view. And that’s what’s makes them successful.  It means breaking the rules and doing things the wrong way,” said Finch, the son of legendary actor Peter Finch.
 
“One definite maverick is Paolo Sorrentino. We cry when we should be laughing in Paolo’s films. And we laugh when we should be crying. He could be anywhere in the world tonight, but he is here among us,” said Finch, whose soirée was beautifully staged by cousin Claire Ingle Finch.

 
Previous Finch award winners have included  Gus Van Sant, Christopher Hampton, Bernardo Bertolucci and Bertrand Tavernier. Sorrentino’s award? A rare watch by Jaeger LeCoultre.
 
After Finch introduced Sorrentino in Italian, the Neapolitan-born director joked: “I don’t know how to give speeches in Italian, so I will speak in English.”
 
Sitting down between Hollywood heavy hitters like Schwarzenegger, Olga Kurylenko and Adrian Brody; plus designer Mafalda von Hessen; Jemima Khan; Kate Driver; Mariella Frostrup and Trudie Styler - who had just sold her debut movie Freak Show and was walking on air. The London Jetset hitting the dancefloor to tunes by ace DJ Henrietta 'Henri' Tiefenthaler.

 
“I always love to come to Cannes, and when I do I never want to miss Charles’ dinner,” beamed Moncler billionaire Remo Ruffini. The CEO sailed into Cannes for the weekend aboard his own yacht Atlante. Talking about mavericks, Ruffini enthused that his Moncler’s store windows in Cannes featured its latest art partnership – a capsule collection based on summer postcard images by legendary French illustrator Jean-Philippe Delhomme. “They put me in the mood for Cannes even before I got here,” quipped Ruffini.
 
Across the room sat Leonardo Ferragamo, scion of the Salvatore Ferragamo shoe empire. He also sailed a yacht into Cannes – though in Leonardo’s case it was in his hyper-mast, 35-meter Solleone – available for hire at 80,000 euros per week.
 
“It’s definitely been a busy Cannes for me!” confessed Mulberry creative director Johnny Coca. Fresh from launching Mulberry’s artisanal breakfast in London Craft Week in early May, Coca was proud to have dressed a series of beauties here on the Cote d’Azur. Notably über-model and actress Amber Valletta who worked the red carpet in Coca’s rust and scarlet floral dress to the premiere of WorldStruck in Cannes.