For many New Yorkers, popping from the Financial District midday to Harlem in the afternoon to an evening out in Midtown would be a lot. When you\u2019re British royalty making your first trip to the United States as heads of state, it\u2019s protocol.<\/p>\n
King Charles III and Queen Camilla capped their whirlwind trip to New York City on Wednesday night at the auction house Christie\u2019s with a celebration hosted by the King\u2019s Trust, formerly the Prince\u2019s Trust, a charity founded by Charles in 1976 to expand opportunity for young people. The event raised $3 million, according to the trust.<\/p>\n
It was the royal couple\u2019s final, big night out during their official state visit to the United States. Anna Wintour, Donatella Versace, Iman and Stella McCartney walked a small red carpet in New York City\u2019s Rockefeller Center before sipping on champagne and gin martinis with lemon twists that were shaped into fascinators.<\/p>\n
McCartney, standing in front of a Damien Hirst spot painting on the red carpet, said she was at the gala to \u201csupport everything good\u201d that the king does.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very aligned in our ways of thinking about saving the planet and all of its creatures and loving and respecting nature,\u201d said McCartney, who emphasizes sustainability in her work as a fashion designer.<\/p>\n
Wintour, who will reign over her own red carpet at the Met Gala on Monday, was asked by a Page Six reporter what she likes to chat about with the king and queen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t chat,\u201d she said. \u201cI listen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The King\u2019s Trust Global Gala came on the third day of a royal tour of Washington, Virginia and New York. Earlier on Wednesday, the king and queen had visited the 9\/11 Memorial and Museum in Lower Manhattan. The king had also met with children in Harlem who are part of a youth program that runs an urban farm, and the queen spoke<\/a> about the power of literature at the New York Public Library\u2019s main branch alongside luminaries including Sarah Jessica Parker.<\/p>\n Martha Stewart, holding court over the red carpet, complimented the king\u2019s gardening talents<\/a> and remarked at their shared passion. (Her tulips were doing exceptionally, she added.)<\/p>\n Would she count herself as American royalty? \u201cOh, I would never presume,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n In a gallery around the corner, the actress Meghann Fahy begged to differ.<\/p>\n Martha as American queen? \u201cI\u2019d like to see that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The British actor Leo Woodall (and Fahy\u2019s partner) agreed, and suggested a counterpart for Queen Martha: King Snoop Dogg.<\/p>\n While guests mingled in a crowded gallery, trying not to bump into the artwork on the walls, Karlie Kloss and Iman huddled in a corner.<\/p>\n Inside the gallery, Wintour spoke with King Charles alongside Mark Guiducci, the global editorial director of Vanity Fair, and Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath and a cast member in the Bravo series \u201cLadies of London: The New Reign<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Security began to clear a path, corralling Stewart, Tilbury and Nina Dobrev to the side of the gallery.<\/p>\n As the king and queen finally entered the auction, passing walls of art, a wave of curtsies began behind a lane of velvet ropes. First came Queen Camilla in a leopard-print dress, followed by King Charles in a blue suit.<\/p>\n The king was met with enthusiastic applause as he took his place behind the lectern, a David Hockney painting to one side of him and a Childe Hassam on the other.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a wonderful opportunity, if I may say so, apart from anything else, that at this reception we can celebrate both my King\u2019s Trust and the enduring cultural bond between the people of the United Kingdom and the United States,\u201d King Charles said. \u201cWhich is of course a relationship rooted in shared creativity, enterprise and value, reminding us that we are truly greater together.\u201d<\/p>\n King Charles thanked the co-chairs of the event, which included Charlotte Tilbury, the beauty mogul, and Lionel Richie. The musician toasted the king but stopped short of a performance, much to the king\u2019s chagrin.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really mad that he isn\u2019t singing this evening, I don\u2019t know how he does it, he must gargle with port or something,\u201d the king said.<\/p>\n Addressing the room, Christian Turner, the British ambassador to the United States, discussed the \u201cextraordinary engine of collaboration and partnership\u201d between the two countries.<\/p>\n