Madonna's Celebration Tour designer fashion pieces raise funds for African charities
Madonna's sustainably produced 'Celebration Tour' designer fashion pieces made in partnership with Jean Paul Gaultier have helped raise funds for charities in Kenya and Malawi.
The limited-edition, certified organic cotton and Fair-Trade merchandise will benefit Chema Vision Children's Center in Kibera, Kenya - a beacon of hope for some of Kibera's most vulnerable youth.
Raising Malawi will also receive some of the money raised from sales of the limited-edition collection.
Madonna, Gaultier, and acclaimed artist and social-entrepreneur Julian Prolman, president of Ministry of Tomorrow (MOT) were the brains behind the charity collection, which sold-out in record time.
It's a cause close to the 'Like a Virgin' hitmaker, as Madonna adopted David and Mercy James, both 18, and 11-year-old twins Stella and Estere from Malawi. She also has Lourdes Leon, 27, with ex Carlos Leon, and son Rocco Ritchie, 23, with ex-husband Guy Ritchie.
Gaultier recently recalled creating his iconic conical bra he made for The Queen of Pop on a teddy bear, long before designing the adult version for the 'Vogue' hitmaker.
He recalled to The Guardian: "I wanted a doll, not a bear, but I did its hair and used my grandmother’s makeup on it. And I made a conical bra for it: it was the first conical bra, even before Madonna’s. I grew up on television, not books, and I’d also seen this programme that showed you could cut a circle out of a circle to make a skirt, so I made a hole in one of my grandmother’s lace mats and turned it into a skirt for the bear.”
Gaultier instantly knew he wanted to work with the 'Holiday' hitmaker as soon as he saw her on 'Top of the Pops' as he "adored" her style.
He said: “I’d seen her singing 'Holiday' on 'Top of the Pops' and thought she was absolutely my style – the jewellery, the crucifixes, the way she dressed, her look – this was what I was doing with my collection. I adored her.”
Madonna would end up phoning Gaultier in 1989 to ask him to dress her, and he didn't believe it at first, as he assumed someone was prank calling him."