Lena Dunham, Jessica Seinfeld, and Maggie Gyllenhaal Shop Co’s Latest Collection to Benefit GOOD+
Powerful women from all walks of creativity came together on Bergdorf Goodman’s sixth floor last night where Co, led by Stephanie Danan and Justin Kern, brought together their collaborators and friends to shop the designer womenswear brand’s latest collection.
Dressed in Co’s coveted wares, all of the women on hand were brought together in one form or another, thanks to Danan and Kern, who have all but abandoned their past careers as successful film producers. “We both made the jump without any thought or preparation, but in a way, that’s how it has to be,” joked Kern. “If we knew what we were getting ourselves into, then we wouldn’t have done it.”
Yet the two have retained a social stronghold on Los Angeles’s artistic community, which continues to be a driving force behind the brand’s success. “We all knew her as a producer, and she was really brilliant at that job, but we also thought she was the chicest person in the world,” director and cofounder of Lenny Letter Jenni Konner told Vogue. “So it’s really interesting when a person like that starts making their own clothes. Now, instead of trying to find clothes that just look like Stephanie wore them, we can actually wear Stephanie’s clothes.”
Among the evening’s shoppers was Maggie Gyllenhaal, as well as artist Yelena Yemchuk, whose nude artworks were selected by Danan to adorn Bergdof Goodman’s walls for the party due to their body-positive messaging. Konner’s Lenny Letter cofounder Lena Dunham was there as well. The two collaborated previously with Danan on an essay for their wildly popular newsletter in which the designer chronicled her bold leap from film to fashion. “Jenni’s actually the one that got me into Co,” Dunham said. “I just love that the clothes are made for real women. When they send me something that’s in my size, it’s actually in my size. She always makes you just feel safe, and beautiful, and like yourself—but better.”
Perhaps even better than the clothes themselves was the fact that every purchase could be made in good conscience, as a portion of every sale was donated to GOOD+ Foundation, the charity founded by Jessica Seinfeld in 2001 that seeks to break the cycle of family poverty. “One of the things I feel conscious of is the glamorization of poverty,” Seinfeld told us, who later added that the GOOD+ Foundation would be igniting a long-term initiative in Texas following Hurricane Harvey. “We work every day trying to raise money to help more families, and we work with the greatest companies who want to do really authentic work. They do it because they get a lot of pleasure out of it, as opposed to sticking their brand name on something and having us talk about it. We look for really wholesome partners like that, and Co is certainly one of them.”