Kate Upton says she has a special place in her heart for top fashion editor Carine Roitfeld, explaining, “She was the first editor who put me on the cover actually wearing clothing.”
Upton, who first found fame through Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Edition, landed her first high-fashion cover with Roitfeld’s much-anticipated debut CR Fashion Book, shot by Bruce Weber, last year.
Upton has since gone on to cover Vogue, Elle and Vanity Fair. Upton, in a figure-hugging claret gown, took to the stage at Fashion Group International’s Night of Stars Tuesday at Cipriani Wall Street, and presented Roitfeld with FGI’s Media Award.
Also at the fashionable gala was Miley Cyrus, who took the stage looking unusually demure in a sequin gown following a performance by Aretha Franklin, who sang “Respect.”
Cyrus said, “If I knew that was where Aretha was going [with her performance] I would have come out here. She asked me if I was going to twerk, but I didn’t know if this was the right audience for that.”
The pop star introduced an award to Marc Jacobs and his business partner Robert Duffy.
“I am very grateful to have found my partner in every sense, other than the biblical one, in Robert,” Jacobs said, adding for clarification, “We never even kiss each other.”
Simon Doonan gave a comedic intro on the honorees with quips like, “Alexander Wang . . . 30 years ago you were an extremely old woman watching the Lawrence Welk show . . . Thanks to Benjamin Button disease and that gender reassignment, you are now a youthful man.”
Also there: Angela Missoni and Alexa Chung.
Coach CEO Lew Frankfort donated $15 million toward Hudson Yards, which will eventually be the new home of New York Fashion Week — and Coach.