It was Tango fever last Thursday night in Paris when Cristina Owen-Jones, wife of L’Oréal ceo Lindsay Owen-Jones, hosted a benefit gala for UNESCO at the Palais de Chaillot theater.
The Tangovia Buenos Aires troupe and orchestra performed in front of a sellout crowd including Karl Lagerfeld, Betty Lagardère, Tilda Swinton, and Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren. The design duo came to town specifically for the event — it takes two to tango, after all — in part because Snoeren himself used to dance.
“I love tango,” he said. “But I haven’t danced it in 10 years.”
Lagardère was another enthusiastic fan.
“My South American roots, you know,” she mused.
Owen-Jones, who was chairing her first benefit that night, explained the gala would help Argentina’s distressed children.
“I saw so much poverty when I traveled to Buenos Aires that it became a priority for me to help these children,” she said after the show.