Inside our AKYN launch dinner: An evening of celebration and connection
This time last week, our founder and creative director Amy Powney hosted an intimate dinner in London to celebrate the launch of AKYN and thank some of our incredible Kynfolk who have made it all possible.
The evening – co-hosted by activist, model and Dirt founder, Arizona Muse, and Country and Townhouse Editorial Director, Lucy Cleland – began with moving and inspiring speeches that set the tone for a night of love and celebration.
“AKYN is made up of my creative vision with the wearer at heart, my reaction to the world today, and our communication is about leading by example and spreading positivity, hope and joy,” shared Amy in her address to the room of 60 guests. “I am choosing activism through creation, wise conversations over arguments, and ultimately proving a point that we can create and respect at the same time. Divine feminine energy that is pure and empathetic to the ultimate mother, Earth, and all that she inhabits, and that united we love.”
Among the attendees were friends, family, colleagues and longtime supporters – Kynfolk – who have all played a meaningful role in Amy’s journey so far. Their unwavering support, guidance and inspiration has been especially poignant over recent years when the world has felt heavy– and even more so through the past few months as Amy embarked on a journey to launch AKYN. “It's been through this community I have had the energy to go on,” Amy told her guests. “Like-minded individuals with warm hearts and souls, filled with empathy, talent and resilience that have both given me the inspiration but also the encouragement to keep going.”
The evening’s aim was simple: for every guest to leave with hearts full of love and bellies full of delicious food – and it’s safe to say, it delivered on both. As Wild by Tart served up a feast of small plates including spinach and fennel spanakopita, house focaccia, new season potatoes and slow cooked courgettes.
Guests including Anita Rani, Brittany Bathgate, Jasmine Hemsley, Lisa Armstrong OBE, Tiffannie Darke, Anna Murphy, Ellie Pithers, Jess Cartner Morley, Bella Webb, Monica Vinader, Anya Hindmarch, Patrick Grant, Polly Morgan, as well as the AKYN Advisory Board, chatted, laughed, and celebrated.
Here’s how the night unfolded…
5pm:
The tables are dressed with twinkling candles and stunning seasonal white floral arrangements by Olivia Wilson, founder of Wetherly flower studio. The hyper-seasonal flowers were grown with a regenerative mindset in Hertfordshire, UK.
Placed at each place setting is a personalised printed menu from the Papier x Amy Powney collaboration.
6.30pm:
The guests start to arrive, greeted by our three hosts for the evening – Amy Powney, Arizona Muse and Lucy Cleland.
7pm:
Welcome drinks and canapés are served as guests mingle and greet one another.
7.45pm:
As the guests take their seats, the evening begins with heartfelt speeches from the three co-hosts – each filled with gratitude and warmth.
“[Amy has] taught us that being a leader often means swimming against the tide, and she’s had some hell of a tide to swim against. But tonight is a new chapter,” opens Lucy. “Women who raise others up, who speak out, who are powerful – that is the world Amy is creating, and we are all power to be her Kynfolk.”
“How enriching is it to be on this journey together?” adds Arizona. “To have more, not to have less because we are being sustainable, to wear more beautiful clothes… because they are better for our planet, because they are better for our fellow humans, even if those humans are half way round the world, connected to us through a supply chain.” She concludes by thanking Amy “on behalf of every single person you have touched with your story, with your energy, with the effort you put into this, and also the people that haven’t heard of you yet,” before handing the floor to the host.
And now it's Amy’s turn. “To you, my Kynfolk, my community, I thank you for your continued support, for your features, your coverage, your amplification, your shoulders that hold the clothes so well but have also been there for me to lean on when I have needed it, your words that have uplifted me, just you being you and I will always be here for you in return,” Amy tells guests, earning a standing ovation, as the room overflows with love and celebration.
8pm:
Dinner is served.
10pm:
As the evening draws to a close, guests leave armed with an oversized AKYN organic cotton tote bag over their shoulder containing a heartfelt, handwritten thank you note from Amy, a piece of jewellery from the Monica Vinader x Amy Powney collection, a belly full of delicious food and a heavy dose of love, gratitude and inspiration.
Mission, accomplished.
Hosts: Amy Powney, Lucy Cleland, Arizona Muse
Florist: Olivia Wilson, Wetherly
Photography: Heidi Jones
Venue: Wild by Tart
Menus: Papier X Amy Powney
