For Thursday night’s Kering Foundation Caring for Women dinner, Carmen Busquets decided to shop her own closet. Or, more specifically, her vast designer-couture-filled closets, scattered from Miami to Paris—the city from which she had a black Balenciaga fall 2023 couture gown shipped for the star-studded event.
“I bought the couture dress,” said the Venezuelan-born entrepreneur, impact investor, and philanthropist, speaking on a call from her car in between meetings in New York City. “It’s not something that is borrowed.”
Back in 2023, the astute Busquets carefully assessed her options, by then creative director Demna for the Kering-owned house, and initially pounced on the buzzed-about sculptural red lace gown.
“It was gorgeous, but then I thought it would be very impractical to sit down; it is beautiful for standing,” she said. “When you have to pay for a dress, you actually think about longevity and practicality.”
Busquets then considered a floaty, puff-sleeve, polka-dotted dress, but ultimately landed on the all-black version of the silhouette: number 33, modeled by Edie Campbell. “I totally fell in love with it, because I thought, I can wear it when I am 70, and I can wear it when I’m 90,” said Busquets, who recently celebrated her 60th birthday.
Busquets has a sharp eye for investing, especially in the fashion space. She not only cofounded Net-a-Porter, but also made a founding investment that yielded her an impressive 16-fold return. Naturally, she also applies her proven intuition for substantial ROI when acquiring exquisite eveningwear.
But after spending the last 30-plus years successfully investing in fashion-tech disruptors like Lyst, Cult Beauty, The Business of Fashion, and Moda Operandi, Busquets decided to decelerate her financial endeavors and focus on philanthropic pursuits. Earlier this year, the veteran eco-warrior—whose charitable efforts include work with Glasswing, WWF, and the CFDA—launched the Carmen Busquets Foundation. The nonprofit celebrates fashion, art, and design and promotes craftsmanship, culture, and sustainability, with an emphasis on underrepresented communities. The foundation’s first initiative is the Carmen Busquets Couture Prize, which will be presented at the Latin American Fashion Awards on November 8.
“I just launched the first Couture Prize in order to promote couture—and more couturiers—in Latin America,” said Busquets.
The avid couture collector is also selling off pieces from her treasured archive to fund her foundation with the proceeds, continue her legacy, and advance a circular economy.
“I’ve been working in fashion since I was 22, so [the collection includes designer pieces from] the ’80s, ’90s, and the 2000s,” said Busquets, name-checking the likes of John Galliano, Thierry Mugler, Claude Montana, Yves Saint Laurent, Alaïa, and Chanel as designers that have graced her closets. “It was always about getting the hard-to-get pieces.”
By rewearing her Balenciaga couture to the VIP Kering dinner, Busquets embodied her principles of couture craftsmanship and sustainable longwear and rewear. Plus, “the last time I wore it,” to a private birthday party, “I didn’t take a photo,” she said.
For the gown’s sophomore outing, Busquets opted for pared-down but still statement-making accessories: oversized blackened-gold hoops encrusted with glittering moval- and baguette-cut diamonds, designed by Nikos Koulis, and avant-garde knuckle-duster rings from Loree Rodkin. “I also love collecting jewelry,” added Busquets, who wore Balenciaga shoes as well.
The world traveler, who resides in Paris, London, and Switzerland, kept her glam session low-key with her trusted makeup artist Luis Guillermo Duque, whom she’s known for nearly 40 years. Instead of partaking in a Champagne-filled pregame party in a lavish hotel suite, they quietly went to work in the downtown Manhattan abode of her sports-media-executive boyfriend, John Skipper.
“I actually try to get ready with classical music or be in my own meditation bubble,” said Busquets, who’s followed the spiritual principles of George Gurdjieff since childhood. Besides, “when you are wearing couture, you have to be so careful with the dress. It’s not like when you go to a hotel.”
The A-list gala at The Pool, in the landmarked Seagram Building, included guests such as Salma Hayek Pinault, Kering chairman and former CEO François-Henri Pinault, Dakota Johnson, Colman Domingo, Kirsten Dunst, Jessica Chastain, and Julianne Moore, plus a performance by FKA Twigs. Also there was Busquets’s friend and fellow vintage aficionado Demi Moore.
“She’s only older than me by two years, but she looks like my little sister,” said Busquets. “We share something in common.”
The two met through a mutual friend in Los Angeles and bonded over their experiences supporting a loved one with a neurocognitive disorder. Busquets dedicated the last five years to caring for her mother with dementia, who passed away in June, and Moore’s ex-husband Bruce Willis is living with frontotemporal dementia.
“We always have spoken, and [Moore has] been in my house,” added Busquets. “I truly admire her.”
Because Busquets was both caring for her mother in the Bahamas and traveling for work, the couture process for her Balenciaga gown stretched to a year and a half. “It was hard to complete it because I missed so many appointments,” she said. But the gown also holds deep personal significance for Busquets.
“All my dresses have sentimental value,” she said.
As Busquets dedicates herself to her philanthropy and growing awareness for Latin American couturiers in influential—and deep-pocketed—circles, she can’t help but keep an eye out for the next sartorial investment opportunity.
“What is great is that it is a dress from Demna [currently the creative director at Gucci],” said Busquets. “Now I’m looking forward to buying a dress from the new designer, Pierpaolo Piccioli. I’m looking forward to that collection. It will be a completely different kind of Balenciaga.”
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