Glamour Women of the Year 2011 Awards – Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Lopez, and More
“I always feel glamorous, even if I’m, like, walking in the park in sneakers and jeans. I think it’s all about your attitude, and how you look at life,” Tory Burch said before being honored as a Fashion Force at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards at Carnegie Hall on November 7.
“In an amazing dress [by Tory Burch] that fits perfectly, I feel glamorous for sure,” the designer’s date, Jessica Alba, told FashionEtc.
And that sums up Glamour’s Women of the Year awards in a nutshell. At the annual bash, the magazine honors women from all walks of life, including the glitzy, like Jennifer Lopez and Lea Michele, businesswomen like Burch and Arianna Huffington, as well as lesser-known but highly accomplished women like Egyptian “Facebook Girl” Esraa Abdel Fattah, whose fearless activism helped oust the regime of president Hosni Mubarak. The night was hosted by Glamour's editor in chief Cindi Leive who wore Stella McCartney, a previous honoree. "Class of '09," Leive told us.
There were very few dry eyes in the house—Carnegie Hall, no less—as these women went onstage to tell their inspiring stories. But there were also plenty of laughs during the evening, like when Jennifer Aniston took the microphone, for instance.
“I rarely comment on my personal life, but I am here to tell you that I’m madly in love,” Aniston told the crowd to hoots and whistles. “And I’m madly in love with the one and only Chelsea Handler,” she added.
“It wasn’t love at first sight. Like most logical people in the entertainment world, I only appeared as a guest on her show so she wouldn’t talk s**t about me,” Aniston said, before marveling that the comic has amassed such a large, loyal fan base.
“And she’s drunk half the time!” But amidst the jokes, Aniston managed to mention Handler’s accomplishments: “Over half of her writing staff are women, and the other half she just doesn’t listen to.”
Handler was clearly moved by the honor, and spoke from the heart, telling the young girls in the audience, “I would like to say that you really can do whatever it is that you want to do. You just have to get out there and f***king do it!”
Photos: Getty Images
Jessica Alba in Tory Burch, Lea Michele in Jenny Packham, Emma Stone in Lanvin, Jennifer Lopez in Versace
Other presenters included Donatella Versace, NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer, Condoleezza Rice, Anita Hill, Marc Jacobs and Emma Stone.
The honorees included former First Lady Laura Bush and her daughters Jenna and Barbara, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, artist Cindy Sherman and feminist icon Gloria Steinem, who reminisced about working at Glamour as a young journalist just starting out.
“When I was in my 20s, I was a contributing editor at Glamour. At editorial meetings I dressed myself with samples that had been photographed,” Steinem told the audience. “I discovered my favorite brand of cosmetics: Free Sample, Not For Sale.”
That was before she, you know, started the women’s movement.