Celebrities Donate Ferragamo Handbags

Celebrities Donate Ferragamo Handbags to Benefit Globalgiving's Italy Earthquake Relief and Recovery Fund

Salvatore Ferragamo, the renowned Italian luxury house, hosted a benefit June 2, 2009 in Beverly Hill, CA, for L'Aquila, Italy's efforts to rebuild after the earthquake earlier this year.  The evening fund-raiser was hosted by Debi Mazar and Adrian Grenier. 

All proceeds from the evening's in-store auction as well as 10% of all shopping proceeds from the night entirely benefit GlobalGiving's Italy Earthquake Relief and Recovery Fund. 

Celebrities in attendance included: *John Legend, *Kate Mara, *Adrian Grenier, *Rosanna Arquette and daughter *Zoe Sidel, *Justin Chambers & Keisha Chambers, *Debi Mazar, Shiva Rose, *Melissa George, *Ever Carradine, *Kelly Lynch, *Tiffany Theissen, *Lisa Edelstein, Donovan Leitch & Kristy Hume Menswear Designer *Massimiliano Giornetti, *Vincent Ottomanelli, President for Salvatore Ferragamo USA. (*)Dressed by Salvatore Ferragamo


On April 6, 2009, the deadliest Italian earthquake in over 15 years struck the Abruzzo mountain region of Italy, with the town of L'Aquila at its epicenter. The toll was grim with nearly 300 people killed, more than 1,000 injured, and as many as 65,000 residents displaced. Many of those who lost their homes are still living in tent cities.

GlobalGiving.org is an organization that connects donors with community-based projects that need support. The GlobalGiving Italy Earthquake Relief and Recovery Fund focuses on various efforts to rehabilitate the Abruzzo region, which include rebuilding communities, reestablishing local markets to stimulate the local economy and delivering basic necessities such as food, blankets and clothing.


An international online auction, comprised of celebrity owned and autographed Ferragamo handbags, will launch at 7 p.m. PST on June 2nd. Supporters may log on to ebay.com/globalgivingitalyearthquake to bid on these special handbags until 7 p.m. PST on June 12th.

Celebrities such as Madonna, Jennifer Aniston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Demi Moore, Hilary Swank, Eva Longoria, Dita von Teese, Lucy Liu, Marisa Tomei, and Lily Tomlin have generously autographed and donated their Ferragamo handbags to be auctioned online. Artist Kenny Scharf hand painted Ferragamo's canvas tote for Debi Mazar, which will also be auctioned online. Handwritten notes from the celebrities, addressed to the lucky winners, accompany all handbags. 100% of the proceeds from the online auction will be donated to GlobalGiving's Italy Earthquake Recovery and Relief Fund, as well as the proceeds from the evening's in-store auction, comprised of luxury excursions to Italy to visit the Florentine headquarters and fashion shows in Milan.

GlobalGiving, the leading Internet-based network for peer-to-peer philanthropy, has a mission to sustain a high-powered marketplace for good, connecting donors directly to the causes they care most about. Since its launch in 2002, GlobalGiving has helped thousands of donors give more than $18 million to approximately 1,000 projects.

Ferragamo USA, Inc. is a fully owned subsidiary of Ferragamo Italia, the Italian fashion company founded in 1927 by Salvatore Ferragamo and still owned by the Ferragamo family. A leader in Italian fashion, Ferragamo is sold in the U.S. at fine specialty and department stores as well as its own retail stores.