On The Scene: OCRFA’s 20th Annual Super Saturday

The Knockturnal was on the scene for OCRFA’s 20th Annual Super Saturday, this past Saturday, July 29th in Water Mill, NY.

The charity shopping event raised $3 Million. Co-founder Donna Karan, Kelly Ripa, Gabby Karan de Felice, Rachel Zoe, and Molly Sims served as hosts for the event, which benefitted the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund Alliance (OCRFA).

Judith and Rudy Giuliani

What are you guys most looking forward to this summer season in the Hamptons?

Rudy: Well, we always look forward to golf and seeing our friends. That’s the real pleasure of being out here, and then events like this. There’s certain events that we take part every year. They become part of our tradition

Judy:  I think it’s a combination of all those things. Then, it’s just beautiful and peaceful to be out here. Well, there are very few places on Earth, really, where there is this beautiful juxtaposition of farmland and ocean, and people forget that. We are blessed because we have both here. Look at this beautiful farm that’s our venue. We’ve got farms and we have ocean. We love to enjoy that. On a day like this when you can bring everybody out … Look at this! Not even particularly nice out. It’s windy. It may rain, and yet everybody comes out here because by now they know this is become a Hamptons tradition, and it’s for a good cause.

Rachel Zoe

You always support this event. 

Rachel: Ovarian Cancer is not easily treatable and easily curable. So we have to just keep on going, keep doing this and work really hard, shop till we drop here and spend money for a cause.

Can you tell us your most memorable find over the years of shopping here?

Rachel:  I’ve found so many things. We get a lot of Brooks Brothers here for all the guys in family. We always do Ralph Lauren stuff, kids clothes. I buy my kids a ton of fun things. They’re probably on the rides or wherever they are right … I haven’t seen them since I walked in. We just have a lot of fun. My whole family’s here.

What do you think will be fashion trends for the fall?

Rachel: I’m literally like, “Wait, what season am I in?” Favorite fall trends, God, I have so many. Big chunky knit sweaters. Biker jackets, of course. Lots of fringe and tassels and suede and thigh high boots. I love fall. Fall’s my favorite season.

Donna Karan

So 20 years, a huge milestone.

Donna Karan: That’s pretty extraordinary.

Do you have a most memorable find over the years, or anything fun that you’ve picked up here?

Donna Karan: I think what I love the most is watching the children grow into the consciousness and awareness of doing something for somebody else. Buying something, the money going into ovarian cancer.

How would you say that has changed since when it first started 20 years ago and to now?

Donna Karan: Well, it first started in Liz Tilberis’ backyard. We all emptied our closets. The concept started with a Seventh on Sale with Anna Wintour for AIDS. I said, “Let’s bring conscious consumerism to let people talk about AIDS.” So it was the CFDA and Anna, myself, and Calvin and Ralph, and it was really quite wonderful. So then we tried to duplicate it here in Liz’s backyard, and being that there are so many of us out here, photographers and artists and people who loved Liz … We started very small, and it blew up. It really did, which is fantastic. It’s our 20th year and I’m hoping this year to do something very special at Urban Zen during Fashion Week, or after, with luxury clothes, because here it’s hard to bring in the one-of-a-kind luxury pieces.

Can you talk about the progress that you feel that they’ve made in testing and diagnostics? 

Donna Karan: No question that the money has gone in fantastically to firstly, awareness, and then how you can live with it. In the days that Liz had it, nobody knew about ovarian cancer. It was not even discussed. My husband had lung cancer at the time and I realized, though, that even though they had known about lung, that nobody knew about ovarian cancer. It was right after the AIDS epidemic.

What is your most proud moment when you look upon this? 

Donna Karan: It’s really Urban Zen. Where you have conscious consumerism, where they’re not only doing it to dress their outside, but dress their insides. And whatever really takes onto their heart. It brings an awareness too … There’s so much philanthropy out there right now, on every single level. We’ve got a lot of problems, needless to say. And I think the only way to solve this is bringing the collective consciousness together, and being involved, aware and make that move. As far as I’m concerned, this should just be a way of life.

I always wanted to have these stores, so that’s why I opened up Urban Zen. To have the ability to communicate to the people, see product made in Haiti and having schools there and bringing down the Parsons School design kids. It’s really quite exciting, and really I hope to spread this out because we do our healthcare there, we do our education there and we do the preservation of culture. So people say to me, “Oh, I want it, I want it, I want it.” I say, “Well, let’s get everybody in the art schools together into the other countries and let them do that before they go into fashion. They’ll learn a lot more.”