Models shed clothes to raise funds for charity

    1 of 1 2 of 1

      For eight years, Vancouver's Noot Seear pounded fashion runways in New York, Paris, Milan, and Madrid. As an international model, she has also appeared in ads for Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Vera Wang, and other top designers. She has enjoyed a glamorous lifestyle, working in Africa, Iceland, China, and Japan.

      As part of one assignment, she even lived in an Inuit community for a week, spending an entire day on a photo shoot on a large iceberg. "I got thrown up in the air by this sealskin trampoline that they used, so you could see a whale in the distance," Seear recalled in an interview with the Straight .

      And now, at the ripe old age of 23, Seear wants to share her good fortune with impoverished people who are still struggling with the effects of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. And she has decided that one of the best ways to do this will be for her and other models to parade around in their underwear in front of more than 1,000 people at the Commodore Ballroom next Thursday (August 16).

      "We brought in models from New York," Seear said. "You're going to see a great fashion show."

      Be Bare 2007 is billed as "Vancouver's naughtiest fashion auction", and it's a fundraiser for Rose Charities. This small, Vancouver-based organization provides cataract and cleft-palate surgery in Cambodia, and offers schooling and microcredit lending to tsunami victims in Sri Lanka. Rose Charities was created by Seear's mother, Josephine de Freitas, and her uncle, William Grut, two Vancouver residents who have been involved in international aid work for more than two decades.

      At Be Bare, the models will wear clothes and jewellery from a number of designers and stores, including high-profile donors such as designers Vera Wang and Marchesa. Seear said that as the products are sold off the models' backs, they will eventually end up in their skivvies. There will also be a silent auction of skateboards, cellphones, and jewellery.

      "It is going to be a really, really fun charity [show]," Seear said with a laugh. "It's done tastefully. It's not a striptease. It's a burlesque, fun, tongue-in-cheek show."

      De Freitas told the Straight that too often, charity fundraisers are aimed at older people, because it's assumed that they are the only ones in the community who have the ability to contribute. In this instance, ticket prices have been kept at $24.95, so that young people can get in the door too.

      In July 2005, Seear raised US$70,000 for child survivors of the tsunami by hosting an art exhibit at the Milk Gallery in New York. Children's drawings of the tsunami were auctioned off alongside prints donated by top photographers. The following year, she staged a fashion auction in Vancouver at Celebrities Nightclub.

      De Freitas said that a $25 donation funds cataract surgery that restores a person's eyesight in Cambodia or Sri Lanka. She added that Rose Charities has also hooked up students in Sri Lanka with Canadian sponsors.

      "For $200 a year for three years, you put a kid through university," de Freitas said. "He writes to you; you write back."

      The designers and donors for Be Bare 2007 include Allison Wonderland, Brooklyn Clothing, Dace, El Kartel, Evidence of Evolution, Gravity Pope, Joanna Kulpa, Mellinda-Mae Harlingten, Richard Kidd, Sunja Link, and Third Floor Designs. Entertainment will be provided by the comedy duo of Dave Dimapilis and PJ Prinsloo of Sketch Laugh Lounge, along with DJs Flipout, Sincerely, Dani, and Hana.

      Tickets are available through www.ticketmaster.ca/ . More information on Rose Charities is available at www.rosecharities.info /.

      Comments