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Sexy Lingerie for Sexy Miamians

Next month, seven supermodels will take to the runway in superlative skivvies at Viscaya for Lingerie Miami, the first event by the charitable organization of the same name. The party will be an all-out extravaganza with dinner, a private concert and a fashion show featuring the world's sexiest lingerie — all to help women out of poverty via microfinance. Meet Renata Black, the young woman behind it all.

"When I was 15 I lived in Colombia on a mountain, and across from me was another mountain covered in cardboard boxes. When it would rain, all of the hundreds of thousands of people’s cardboard homes would slide down the mountain," the 29-year-old Black says of her motivation for Lingerie Miami. "I remember riding the bus and thinking to myself that the only real difference between those kids and me was one thing — luck."

Lingerie Miami, is part of a new phenomenon, a "philanthropic brand" is how Black describes it. While the immediate focus is a glamorous event scheduled for February 2009 that showcases luxury lingerie designers from around the world, Lingerie Miami is actually the culmination of one woman’s lifetime desire to improve the material, social and spiritual welfare of those less fortunate than herself. "I don’t feel comfortable flipping the TV channels and having the ability to do something about it and not doing it," she says.

Black’s benevolence is deep-rooted. Early on, she identified her vocation to help others. A major influence in this chosen path was the tragedy that devastated her own world as a young child, when both her parents died when she was just a year old. Ever magnanimous, she is keen to acknowledge how blessed she feels to have been adopted by an aunt and uncle whose efforts she describes as "very courageous."

"If not, I could very well have found myself living on that other side of the mountain," she says.

Having moved to the USA was she was 16 years old, Black concentrated her energies in this direction. After graduating from college (she has a bachelor's in mass communications with a minor in psychology from the University of North Carolina), Black decided to take a trip around the world, but this was no ordinary gap-year break. Traveling to 12 countries in as many months, she decided that to get to know the true cultures of the places she visited she would volunteer her services in each. In New Zealand she worked with the mentally disabled elderly, in Hong Kong it was terminally ill children and in Egypt she became involved with a hospital for children born into poverty.

But, it was the events of the tsunami on Boxing Day in 2004 that polarized Black’s vision. While helping to rebuild the villages shattered by the catastrophic flooding, she was approached by a woman. “She was strong-voiced, with piercing eyes and she said to me, ‘I know you have money and I don’t want it, but why don’t you teach me how to make it myself!’” Black says. This chance encounter sparked a new course for Black, who immediately set out to find how she might accomplish this poignant request.

"I discovered a huge world of microfinance and went about educating myself by attending loads of courses and seminars, including one at the Boulder Institute in Turin, Italy," she says. Much of her understanding of the intricacies and implications of this new world came via the 2006 Noble Prize winner, Muhammad Yunnus. Her heroes are Bill Gates, Angelina Jolie and Bill Drayton, head of Ashoka.

"My inspiration are the women in the world who live on under a dollar a day, break their backs to make it and still smile back at life," Black says before further explaining the fundamentals. "It’s very easy. When you get into the habit of balancing your own checkbook, you realize the power of a penny. You realize how a little bit here and a little bit there adds up to a lot. Once you realize the power of the tiny bits of money, you automatically become more of a conscious spender."

Having learned how to design these programs, Black returned to India to assess villages and, where applicable, implement appropriate programs. "I did this for two years and had 800 women in the program," she says. "'Til this day, the program still exists with the help of the Indian government and one powerful, vivacious 25-year-old Indian girl. She was once a very shy, soft-spoken girl, but with a bit of encouragement and highlighting her attributes, she has now turned into a strong leader that I am very proud of."

Black’s husband is equally as proud of his wife. Himself a success in the worlds of aviation, technology and real estate, Wade Black belongs to the Young Presidents Organization, where to qualify as a member your company must make at least $10 million a year.

"Quite frankly, I couldn’t have realized this if it wasn’t for him," says Black. "After coming back from India I realized I couldn’t go around the world supporting or initiating microfinance endeavors, so I would have to be able to fuel them from the States. My husband’s foundation only did philanthropy nationally, but really believed in my global vision. Wade believed I could give it a young, fresh, cutting-edge approach and the board members approved to have me become the director of the foundation. They are incredibly pleased with the initiative and momentum Lingerie Miami is fueled by and feel honored to have the foundation’s name associated to it."

It is Black’s aim to “adopt” around half a dozen countries with her organization investing $100,000 in an established microfinance institute in each. “I say invest because the return on the investment is not only giving exit strategies for women out of poverty, but [they also] repay the loan and it is re-lent to another woman,” she says.
Before Black adopts an organization they are ruthlessly scrutinized. “It is important to speak to the women who they help, to sit in on their meetings and see if they are just giving loans or if they go beyond that and help the women in other areas like, for example, domestic violence,” she says. “In order to leverage their reach, they need to be able to rely on consistent funding to grow their programs substantially. Every country we adopt will receive funding for the life of the show.”

Black’s passion is persuasive. The Lingerie Miami event, which is co-hosted by the City of Miami, boasts a committee that includes none other than the legendary singer and heartthrob Julio Iglesias, along with Eva Hughes, chief editor of Vogue Latino America, LA Clippers' Ricky Davis and Brian Lucey, president of Quintessentially Miami. Dom Pérignon, Cipriani and Gansevoort Hotel are partners in the event, while MTV, MTV Latin America, Vogue Latino America, Quintessentially Miami and Ocean Drive magazine are all acting as media partners. Ivanka Trump, the socialite daughter of Donald and Ivana, has agreed to lend her support. “I had five minutes to sell it to Ivanka, and I only really needed three!” says Black, who is genuinely excited by the red carpet lineup that will be featured in the spectacular catwalk show that promises to “take you on a trip back in time: the decadent elegance of the 1930s meets the soigné danger of a Bond girl.” This translates as sexy couture-style corsetry and underpinnings from some of the world's leading designers and high-profile luxury brands, including Vivienne Westwood, Agent Provocateur and Fifi Chachnil, along with corsetiere to the stars, Mr. Pearl, whose outrageous designs have shaped the catwalk collections of French designers Christian Lacroix and Thierry Mugler.

"I think one of the best indications that you have a powerful idea is when the people you involve take it to another level," Black says. "I have been fortunate enough to have one of the most professional and passionate teams out there. I am a philanthropist with a business mind. I could never take credit for being a fashion expert, yet I can take credit for realizing who is."

But why lingerie? "I wanted to create something that would fuel organizations on a consistent basis. I didn’t want to have to rely on people’s unpredictable generosity or just ‘another fundraiser.’ Having traveled to Europe often, I realized the omnipresence of lingerie stores and how women actually cared how they looked underneath their clothes. Here I saw an untapped niche that could, like everything else European, be transported to the States," Black says.

"A woman is never truly dressed without beautiful lingerie. It is the foundation of every confident and sexy woman," says Joe Corre, co-founder of Agent Provocateur. "Lingerie Miami, helping to empower women this way, is brilliant."

"After buying exquisite lingerie I felt this sense of confidence," Black says. "The same confidence I saw in my women when they could pay for their kids medical and educational needs. So basically, I came to the conclusion that it would only be right to use the tools adequate to each region to empower women. In some countries women feel empowered in seductive lingerie and in others by simply having the means to supply for their children."

The common thread is female. “Give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day. Give a woman micro-credit, she, her husband, her children and her extended family will eat for a lifetime,” is how Bono summed it up when he spoke to a reporter from The New York Times Magazine in September 2005. Black highlights this synergetic approach.

"Nowadays you want to have one action that has multiple benefits and women provide just that," she says. "There is a huge focus on helping children, which is a very worthwhile cause, but if you can help a mother give her kid sustainable living and an exit out of poverty, then my help and donated money has had that much more [of an] effect."

Black’s aim is for Lingerie Miami to create its own category of fashion shows — part Victoria’s Secret, part New York Fashion Week. This philanthropic brand will have people not only coming to see the latest luxury lingerie and release their excited for the fashion, but also create the thrill that their participation is impacting the world.
"I hope Lingerie Miami grows to have a life of its own that surpasses my own lifetime," she says — just as any proud mother would.

Lace up at www.lingeriemiami.org

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