An evening with a concert for the Red Cross, instead of the Origins Ball. Sporty style as the princess likes, who “slowly” returns to regain possession of life
It is the awaited evening of Charlène, the first social gala of the summer in Monaco starring the princess who aroused so much apprehension in the Principality a year ago. The great return of Charlène-11 years after her first Red Cross Ball in 2011 dressed in a fuchsia dress.
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The princess arrived, tanned, dressed in a silver-colored dress, accompanied by Prince Albrto in a blazer and red tie. No black tie for the first princess gala who loves a relaxed and informal style.
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A year ago, for the first time, the historic Red Cross Ball was no longer transformed into a Ball – impossible in times of pandemic – but into a concert: an evening designed as a recognition for the health workers of the Principality who have fought against the pandemic. And, Charlène absent abroad to get treatment, it was Alberto with the Grimaldi family in full force who celebrated the activity of the Red Cross in the timid post-pandemic recovery. To do the honors a year ago with Alberto, his sister Caroline, the children Andrea and Pierre, the sister Charlotte with Beatrice Borromeo and also the brother of the Princess Charlène, Gareth Wittstock in the inevitable glamor in the summer of Monaco in the new Place du Casino made pedestrian. This evening, on the other hand, the most awaited protagonist is Charlène, who has gradually returned to normal. “Slowly,” as Prince Albert told the Corriere a week ago.
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“We all feel relieved now that she is resuming her life,” slowly “”, Italian words to convey the idea of the path towards normality of the princess who only a few months ago returned to be seen: the first photo of the Rocca in Easter with the family, then to the F1 Grand Prix and the first official trip to Norway. A week ago on the night of Bal de la Rose 2022, a watershed towards new-found normality, in the scent of 14,000 roses at Sporting, a 1920s décor. Since then, a crescendo of public appearances: a surprise visit of the new frescoes unveiled at the Rocher after several years of restoration, mixing with the tourists of the summer in Montecarlo. An event on the beach for her association Fondation Princesse Charlène de Monaco which has never stopped her commitment against drowning, especially of the little ones.
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A crescendo of participation in the life of Monaco which tonight has its climax in the awaited return of Charlène. With guests such as French singer Awa Imani and and model Adriana Karembeu. But also luxury and business personalities, from the Repossi family to Jim Ratcliffe, president of the British group Ineos.
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for its great return to the spotlight, the dance evening was also transformed by the impulse of the princess who loves a practical and sporty style, into a gala with a relaxed and less formal style than the Balli allo Sporting. After all, even Ranieri was not too fond of a tuxedo.
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“My dad, Ranieri, didn’t really like worldliness very much, he loved moments of tranquility in the family”, as he said in an interview at the Palais, for Corriere della Sera, Alberto son of a diva (Grace) and of a prince (Rainier), when asked if the icon of post-war worldliness, the “Prince Charmant” as he was called by the overseas press when he got engaged to the Oscar-winning diva at a reception at the Waldorf Astoria in New York, loved to wear tuxedo. And a more familiar, relaxed worldliness, after all, is also that of the new post-pandemic times.
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In a time when like a sleeping beauty the reign of Prince Albert II awaited the return of its princess, the weight of Charlène was silently confirmed: a year ago in August, the Governing Council of the Monegasque Red Cross, had indeed confirmed the Princess Charlène as Vice-President for the next three years.
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Not the only Grimaldi on the board: in fact, on the council Charlène sits next to Camille Gottlieb, youth manager of the Red Cross and daughter of Alberto’s sister, Princess Stéphanie. Camille is very active with the Monaco Red Touch Challenge project. After all, she learned her social attention from her mother Stéphanie who has always helped AIDS patients. The 40 years of presidency of Prince Albert of the Red Cross of Monaco who took the baton from his father Ranieri until 1958 first and then from his mother Grace until 1982? Humanitarian projects from Afghanistan to West Africa, Congo, Croatia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Haiti, Kenya, Mozambique, Myanmar and Rwanda.
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In the Ukrainian conflict, the Monegasque Red Cross took action by raising funds for people affected by the war and to welcome refugees. The Monegasque association is also active in collaboration with the Italian Red Cross (CRI) to create a logistics platform in Suceava, Romania.
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In 1948 the intuition of Louis II to combine worldliness and commitment, glamor and attention to the everyday world: thus, on March 3 of that post-war year, the Monegasque Red Cross was born. Then in 1952 the star of the Gala will be Monsieur Dior. Yes, he himself, Christian Dior, the king of the Parisian New Look who in the post-war period revived the desire for joyful worldliness with his dresses with long and wide corollas. These are the years in which Winston Churchill “descends” to Monaco with Lady Churchill, the secretary Montague Browne and … the faithful budgie Toby. In which the count and countess of Barcelona, parents of King Juan Carlos of Spain, Princess Maria Gabriella of Savoy, the Bégum Aga Khan, mingle in the worldliness of Monaco.
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A few years later, Grace would arrive next to Ranieri instead. And with Grace, American stars also arrive at the Red Cross Ball. Her friends, of course, like Gary Cooper, Cary Grant or Franck Sinatra. But not only that, all (or almost) the great American stars of the 60s and 70s land in the gardens of Munich, from Ella Fitzgerald to Sammy Davis Jr.
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But the charity evening is dressed in the colors of a concert with the voice of Alicia Keys in the new square in front of the legendary Hotel de Paris and the Casino: it was Charlène in mask with Alberto in full pandemic who inaugurated ina an unusually empty Monte Carlo, the new pedestrian square two years ago.
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A few meters further on, the new “island” of Montecarlo rose from the sea. Where, as Prince Albert II told us, “Gabriella will have a square all her own, the Place Princesse Gabriella and her twin Jacques will also have a street all her own: there will be a Promenade Prince Jacques”. An island – indeed a peninsula in the final configuration – with the sign of the Italian star architect, Renzo Piano (like the new promenade of Monaco). Piano, with the Renzo Piano Building Workshop, is in fact the architect who inspired the architectural idea of Mareterra: the official name of the new extension in the sea of Monaco, the extension on the waves, which despite the pandemic has risen in the months of lockdown . «By Renzo Piano? I really like the use of light – as the prince explained to us – and for a country overlooking the sea like ours, light is everything ».
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July 18, 2022 (change July 18, 2022 | 20:51)
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