MINI 2010 Life Ball debut at Vienna’s City Hall Square

The MINI 2010 Life Ball featured the designs of Kenneth Cole, Francisco Costa and Diane von Furstenberg to raise funds for the Foundation for AIDS Research. The Mini designed by Calvin Klein Collection’s Francisco Costa has been auctioned off for €40,000.

Press Release:

2010 Life Ball MINI make their frenetic debut on the red carpet in Vienna. Extravagant collector’s items are auctioned off for charity.

Munich/Vienna. On 17 July, celebrity fashion designers Diane von Furstenberg, Kenneth Cole and Calvin Klein Collection’s Francisco Costa personally unveiled to the public the 2010 Life Ball MINI they personally designed. Last Saturday night, the international style icons accompanied “their” MINI along the red carpet laid out on Vienna’s City Hall Square on the occasion of the annual AIDS charity event. The three gems on wheels were given a rapturous welcome by the enthusiastic crowds.

Belgian-born US fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg captivated onlookers with a bright red MINI which she had sprinkled with numerous colourful lips. Elegant mother-of-pearl white lent an iridescent touch to the wheel rims, mirror caps and roof of the car. Delivering a similar dash of glamour was the gleaming silver MINI Convertible by New York fashion star Kenneth Cole, with a surface of brushed metal and some 8,000 studs applied by hand. Inside the car, the creative New Yorker showed his keen attention to detail in the fine-leather seats, piping with Swarovski crystals, stud appliqués and embossed logos, among other features. Calvin Klein Collection’s award-winning Women’s Creative Director Francisco Costa designed an arresting MINI Countryman in matt black paintwork with a reflective logo on each of the front doors. The tinted windows lent the car an aura of mystery.

The Life Ball MINI by Calvin Klein Collection’s Francisco Costa went under the hammer for the amount of 40.000 Euro that same evening as part of the amfAR Gala in Vienna in support of the AIDS charity. The other two MINI will be auctioned at upcoming amfAR events. Total proceeds will go to amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research. Dr Wolfgang Armbrecht, Senior Vice President MINI Brand Management, commented: “We can now look back on a successful ten-year partnership with the Life Ball. The event is an excellent platform for the MINI brand, while our involvement allows us to contribute further to the fight against HIV/AIDS.”

MINI at the 2010 Life Ball.

This is MINI’s tenth successive involvement in Europe’s leading AIDS charity event. The 18th Life Ball will be held in Vienna on 17 July 2010 and will once again serve as a hot spot for international celebrities. This colourful, extrovert event flies the flag for solidarity and provides MINI with the perfect platform on which to highlight its social-political commitment. Global measures to fight HIV/AIDS are a key element of the BMW Group’s involvement on behalf of social causes.

This year’s Life Ball – held to coincide with the 18th International Aids Conference in Vienna that starts the day after the event – will take place against a special backdrop. On 17 July, not only will Vienna’s City Hall and City Hall Square be dedicated to the red ribbon; the Burgtheater will also be playing its part with the Red Ribbon Cotillion Summer Ball, as will the Austrian Parliament, which hosts the amfAR Gala.

In the spirit of this year’s motto “Sow the Seeds of Solidarity!” and the “Earth” theme, the 2010 Life Ball will be sowing its seeds around the world wherever the need is greatest.