MORE MONCLER: The dinner that Ruth Rogers, River Café owner and London’s hostess-in-chief, held at her Chelsea home for Remo Ruffini and the designer Jony Ive was a pre-holiday love-in featuring some of the best food in town.
It was meant to celebrate the recently launched LoveFrom, Moncler Monocore jacket collection that Ruffini and Ive had been working on for the past five years. LoveFrom is the design collective founded by Ive and Marc Newson in 2019, and this was Ive’s first foray into fashion design.
The design features three fabric shells that connect to a down jacket with the help of heat-resistant magnetic buttons. Ive also created a special dark blue version of the jacket to mark the opening last week of Moncler’s New Bond Street flagship, which was designed by Gilles & Boissier and spans 5,800 square feet over three floors.
A look at one of the jackets from the LoveFrom, Moncler collaboration.
Admittedly, there was much to celebrate on the night but it was really just a gang of creatives — including Phoebe Philo, Kelly Rutherford, Micheal Ward, Marc Newson, Charlotte Stockdale, and Norman and Elena Foster — having fun.
They feasted on silky risotto, fish, green vegetables and cannellini beans followed by The River Café’s Chocolate Nemesis cake and pear and almond tart.
The multitasking Rogers shuttled between the two long tables in her vast home kitchen space, serving up seconds of risotto to the starry crowd. It was so good, some were tempted to ask for thirds.
She described the night as “all about connection,” and used Ive’s magnetic fastenings as a metaphor.
“A magnet draws us in, and keeps us together and connected like a family. Tonight is all about connection,” said Rogers.
A look inside the new Moncler store in London.
Saira MacLeod/WWD
Ive added: “This whole project has been joyful, positive and full of life. Creativity is inherently an optimistic practice, and making is a really good thing.”
Ive said there was no agenda in working with Moncler “other than the purity of collaboration and the joy of creating something.” Perhaps that’s why they took a cool five years to get that magnetic jacket to market.
