Last Thursday, The National Arts Club hosted Fashion for Food. Organized by fashion designer Malcom Harris and Contemporary Art Curator Stacy Engman, the event was a marvelous menagerie of charity, couture and edgy artistic performances that — most importantly — raised money and awareness for a worthy cause: The Food Bank for New York, which lately has lacked the resources to supply sufficient meals to those in need.

Fashion for Food, an ongoing initiative, works to both raise funds for the bank and, as Engman explained, “create awareness and provide relief.” Be it the open bar or pure holiday spirit, by the end of the evening the predominately art-world attendees were certainly eager to do their part. Harris explained his motivation in simple fashion terms: “I don’t want to design pretty dresses for an ugly world.”

This evening, there was little ugly in sight, as outlandishly lovely entertainment and a styled crowd filled the event with inspiration. An avant-garde performance by Dynasty Handbag, bursting with ingenious darkness and dry humor, opened the show. Next, SANTALOPE, aka Andrew Erdos dressed as Santa Claus, rode in on a stuffed donkey, for what he deemed a “comical comment about capitalism”. Finally, MTV’s Turbo Teddy enticed with his sculptural art-cuts.

The Moral: If the fashion world can help, so can you. Check out www.foodbanknyc.org to find out how.