by Andrew Nodell for WWD on May 16th, 2017
Luxury shoe designer Vanessa Noel and-skin care mogul Peter Thomas Roth were among the honorees
Throngs of elegant New York ladies poured into the marble covered lobby of the Metropolitan Club on Tuesday afternoon for the Madison Square Boys and Girls Club 12th Annual Salute To Style luncheon. “This feels like somewhat of a homecoming for me” explained shoe designer Vanessa Noel who is among the afternoon’s honorees. “I lived here at the Metropolitan club in their hotel rooms for a year when my townhouse was being renovated, almost a decade ago. I felt like Eloise at the Plaza.”
“It was fun to come home and crash weddings or parties” she added with mischievous smile
In her acceptance speech during the program, which was held in the club’s ornately decorated ball room facing Fifth Avenue. Noel revealed her plans to open the nation’s first permanent shoe museum and invited youth from the local boys and girls club to be among the first to tour. The designer who also owns a boutique hotel on Nantucket is kept your plans for a nonprofit museum under wraps for three years.
Noel and her collaborators are searching for an initial 20,000 square-foot home for the collection Manhattan uses about half of the size of her goals in terms of space. The city loves the idea and you can follow culture and history
Of man as seen through footwear and materials used.
Given her strong place within the industry, Noel is having no problem sourcing important pieces for the collection. Any Winehouse‘s father is promising me all of the singers shoes they still have. There are sneakers she designed bowl from Jamaica has promised me his gold sneakers that he won at the Olympics.
The Cornell alumni who also helps the museum will be an education outpost with talks from Industry executives and designers ranging from Manolo Blahnik to Sarah Jessica Parker.