The Aloysius Society is a philanthropic group of Oxford University students dedicated to supporting those in need around the globe. Aloysius members organise large-scale events to raise money and awareness for their chosen charities. Past events have included the Sugarplum Ball, the Oxford Red Dress Couture Ball, the Marefat Dinner, and the Mindful Gala Dinner.

The Sugarplum Ball

The first event organised by the Aloysius Society was the Sugarplum Ball, held at the Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, England . Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road...

 on 30 November 2009 in aid of SOS Children's Villages

SOS Children's Villages

SOS Children's Villages is an independent, non-governmental international development organisation which has been working to meet the needs and protect the interests and rights of children since 1949. It was founded by Hermann Gmeiner in Imst, Austria...

, an organisation that provides family-based, long-term care for children who can no longer remain with their biological families. The Sugarplum Ball was attended by guests such as Sarah, Duchess of York

Sarah, Duchess of York

Sarah, Duchess of York is a British charity patron, spokesperson, writer, film producer, television personality and former member of the British Royal Family. She is the former wife of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, whom she married from 1986 to 1996...

, Princess Beatrice of York

Princess Beatrice of York

Princess Beatrice of York is the elder daughter of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Sarah, Duchess of York...

, star of the Narnia films Anna Popplewell

Anna Popplewell

Anna Katherine Popplewell is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Susan Pevensie in The Chronicles of Narnia film series since 2005.-Early life:...

 and Sir Rocco Forte. Michelin-starred chef Tom Aikens

Tom Aikens

Tom Aikens is an English chef.-Early life:Aikens was born in Norwich in 1970 into a family of wine merchants. The Aikens family had a converted barn in the Auvergne region of France where the chef would spend his early summers...

 designed the menu, Tracey Emin

Tracey Emin

Tracey Karima Emin RA is a British artist of English and Turkish Cypriot origin. She is part of the group known as Britartists or YBAs ....

 designed the invitations, and auction prizes included a picture of Kate Moss

Kate Moss

Kate Moss is an English model. Moss is known for her waifish figure and popularising the heroin chic look in the 1990s. She is also known for her controversial private life, high profile relationships, party lifestyle, and drug use. Moss changed the look of modelling and started a global debate on...

's bottom, owned by her. The ball's sponsors included Ivan the Terrible, and Martell (cognac).

The Oxford Red Dress Couture Ball

On 18 June 2010, The Oxford Red Dress Couture Ball was a three-part event organised by the Aloysius Society in aid of H.E.L.P. charity. Participating designers included Chanel

Chanel

Chanel S.A. is a French fashion house founded by the couturier Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, well established in haute couture, specializing in luxury goods . She gained the name "Coco" while maintaining a career as a singer at a café in France...

, Herve Leger

Herve Leger

Herve Leger, sometimes written as Hervé Léger , is a French fashion house founded by the designer currently known as Hervé L. Leroux.-History:Herve Leger was founded in 1985 by the designer currently known as Hervé L. Leroux...

, Marchesa, John Galliano

John Galliano

John Charles Galliano CBE, RDI is a Gibraltan-born British fashion designer who was best known as head designer of French haute couture houses Givenchy and Christian Dior , and his own self titled fashion house.-Family:He was born in Gibraltar to a Gibraltarian father, Juan Galliano, and a...

, Armani and Alexander McQueen

Alexander McQueen

Lee Alexander McQueen, CBE was a British fashion designer and couturier best known for his in-depth knowledge of bespoke British tailoring, his tendency to juxtapose strength with fragility in his collections, as well as the emotional power and raw energy of his provocative fashion shows...

. Red, the international colour of hope for those affected by HIV/AIDS, was the unifying link carried throughout the evening's festivities, which were centred around the Oxford Town Hall

Oxford Town Hall

The Oxford Town Hall is located on St Aldate's in the centre of Oxford, England. The site was previously occupied by Oxford Guildhall. It is a meeting place for local government in the city and also houses the Museum of Oxford. In addition, it can be hired for events...

 and the famed Divinity School, Oxford

Divinity School, Oxford

The Divinity School is a medieval building and room in the Perpendicular style in Oxford, England, part of the University of Oxford. Built 1427–83, it is the oldest surviving purpose-built building for university use, specifically for lectures and discussions on theology...

. Prizes were donated to auction by stars such as Pete Townshend

Pete Townshend

Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career...

, and the event garnered the support of celebrities such as Sir Roger Moore

Roger Moore

Sir Roger George Moore KBE , is an English actor, perhaps best known for portraying British secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985. He also portrayed Simon Templar in the long-running British television series The Saint.-Early life:Moore was born in Stockwell, London...

, and industry leaders such as Anna Wintour

Anna Wintour

Anna Wintour, OBE is the British-born editor-in-chief of American Vogue, a position she has held since 1988. With her trademark pageboy bob haircut and sunglasses, Wintour has become an institution throughout the fashion world, widely praised for her eye for fashion trends and her support for...

 and Harold Tillman

Harold Tillman

Harold Peter Tillman CBE is a British retail entrepreneur and investor. His current investments include Jaeger and Aquascutum.-Early life:Tillman was born into a Jewish family living in Brixton Hill, the only child of a Yorkshire-born tailor father who trained at Montagu Burton, and milliner mother...

. Cynthia Leive

Cynthia Leive

Cynthia Leive is the Editor in Chief of Glamour magazine.Under Leive, Glamour has received a record number of editorial awards...

, editor-in-chief of Glamour US, termed the event "a truly powerful night for fashion, for academia, and for charity".

The Marefat Dinner

The Society organised the Marefat Dinner with Lord Speaker Baroness D'Souza and journalist Christa D'Souza

Christa D'Souza

Christa D'Souza is a freelance British journalist, contributing regularly to British Vogue and The Sunday Times.-Career:D'Souza has written for publications such as The Guardian, the Daily Mail, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, Vanity Fair, the Evening Standard, and W , in addition to her current...

, at The Connaught (hotel)

The Connaught (hotel)

The Connaught in Carlos Place, Mayfair, central London, is a five star luxury hotel.The hotel first opened in 1815 as the Prince of Saxe Coburg Hotel, an offshoot of a hotel opened by Alexander Grillon in Albemarle Street, Mayfair, and was originally a pair of Georgian houses in Charles Street,...

 on 3rd February 2011. The dinner was in aid of the Marefat High School in West Kabul, Afghanistan, which champions education in one of Kabul's most devastated districts. The dinner was attended by guests including Roland Mouret

Roland Mouret

Roland Mouret is a French fashion designer.-Training and early career:His fashion training consisted of three months in a Parisian fashion college in 1979. In the 1980s Mouret worked as creative director with Gai Pied Hebdo, a Paris-based gay publication, and was an Act Up activist...

, Alice Temperley

Alice Temperley

Alice Temperley MBE is a British fashion designer based in London. Her fashion label, Temperley London was launched in 2000.-Career:...

, Jemima Khan

Jemima Khan

Jemima Marcelle Khan is a British writer and campaigner. She is associate editor of the New Statesman and European editor-at-large for Vanity Fair. She has worked as a charity fundraiser, human rights campaigner and contributing writer for British newspapers and magazines...

, Fatima Bhutto

Fatima Bhutto

Fatima Bhutto born, Fatima Murtaza Bhutto on 29 May 1982, is a Pakistani poet and writer. She is granddaughter of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the niece of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and daughter of Murtaza Bhutto....

, Edie Campbell

Edie Campbell

- Career :Edie started modelling after she appeared in a Vogue feature by Mario Testino, in a story about up and coming young Londoners. Mario Testino then went on to use her in a Burberry campaign alongside Kate Moss. Campbell is now represented by VIVA London and VIVA Paris.Campbell has been...

, Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman

Alexandra Shulman

Alexandra Shulman, OBE , is the editor of the British edition of Vogue. She is one of the country's most oft-quoted voices on fashion trends. She took the helm of Vogue in 1992, presiding over a circulation increase to 200,000 and a higher profile for the publication...

, Tatler editor Kate Reardon

Kate Reardon

Kate Reardon is a British journalist, the current editor of Tatler magazine.-Early life:Reardon was born to London architect Patrick Reardon in New York. Her education, however, was 'thoroughly British', attending Garden House, Bute House, Cheltenham Ladies' College and Stowe School...

, Bella Freud

Bella Freud

Bella Freud is a London-based fashion designer with a number of celebrity clients.-Life and career:Freud was born in London, England. She is the daughter of Bernardine Coverley and artist Lucian Freud and great granddaughter of the inventor of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud. Her father Lucian Freud...

, Laura Bailey

Laura Bailey

Laura Bailey is an English model represented by Liz Matthews PR. She has modelled campaigns for Guess Jeans, L'Oreal, Jaguar, Jaeger, Marks and Spencer, Bella Freud and Temperley London. Laura also works as a writer and has written for Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Vanity Fair, Glamour, The Independent,...

, Cherie Blair

Cherie Blair

Cherie Blair , known professionally as Cherie Booth QC, is a British barrister working in the legal system of England and Wales. She is married to the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair; the couple have three sons and one daughter...

, Anya Hindmarch

Anya Hindmarch

Anya Susannah Hindmarch MBE is an English fashion accessories designer.-Biography:Born in Maldon, Essex, to a self-made man, Hindmarch was educated at Elm Green Preparatory School, a preparatory School in Little Baddow. At 16 Hindmarch was given an old Gucci handbag by her mother...

, Jeremy Clarkson

Jeremy Clarkson

Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson is an English broadcaster, journalist and writer who specialises in motoring. He is best known for his role on the BBC TV show Top Gear along with co-presenters Richard Hammond and James May...

, Mariella Frostrup

Mariella Frostrup

Mariella Frostrup is a Norwegian-born journalist and television presenter, well known on British TV and radio, mainly for arts programmes. Her 'gravelly' voice was once voted the sexiest female voice on TV, and research to find 'the perfect voice' has indicated that Frostrup's voice is one of the...

, AA Gill, and Simon Cowell's Afghan fiancée Mezhgan Hussainy. The auction included prize experiences donated by Roland Mouret

Roland Mouret

Roland Mouret is a French fashion designer.-Training and early career:His fashion training consisted of three months in a Parisian fashion college in 1979. In the 1980s Mouret worked as creative director with Gai Pied Hebdo, a Paris-based gay publication, and was an Act Up activist...

, Yotam Ottolenghi

Yotam Ottolenghi

-Biography:Yotam Ottolenghi was born in Jerusalem, Israel, on 14 December 1968, son of Michael, a professor of chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Ruth, a high-school principal. He grew up in Jerusalem's Ramat Denya neighborhood. After serving in the Israel Defense Forces, he...

 and the Dorchester Collection

Dorchester Collection

Dorchester Collection is a luxury hotel operator owned by the Brunei Investment Agency , an arm of the Ministry of Finance of Brunei. Dorchester Collection owns and manages 9 luxury five star hotels, The Dorchester, The Beverly Hills Hotel, Plaza Athénée, Hotel Meurice, Principe di Savoia, Hotel...

, with Jeremy Clarkson

Jeremy Clarkson

Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson is an English broadcaster, journalist and writer who specialises in motoring. He is best known for his role on the BBC TV show Top Gear along with co-presenters Richard Hammond and James May...

 offering an impromptu driving lesson that fetched £19,000. An Afghan-inspired feast was designed by two-Michelin-starred chef Hélène Darroze, and drinks were sponsored by Moët & Chandon.

The Mindful Gala Dinner

On 21 September 2011, the Aloysius Society organised the Mindful Gala Dinner with Mind (charity) to launch the Mindful of Art exhibition curated by artist Stuart Semple

Stuart Semple

Stuart Semple is a contemporary British artist and curator, based in London and Dorset. Semple's practice addresses ideas sparked by immersion in popular culture and combines contemporary figurative painting with pop art.-Life and career:...

. The exhibition, held in the Old Vic Tunnels, included artworks from world-renowned artists such as Tracey Emin

Tracey Emin

Tracey Karima Emin RA is a British artist of English and Turkish Cypriot origin. She is part of the group known as Britartists or YBAs ....

, Jake and Dinos Chapman

Jake and Dinos Chapman

Iakovos "Jake" Chapman and Konstantinos "Dinos" Chapman are English visual artists, often known as the Chapman Brothers, who work together as a collaborative sibling duo...

, Sarah Lucas

Sarah Lucas

Sarah Lucas is an English artist. She is part of the generation of Young British Artists who emerged during the 1990s...

, Mat Collishaw

Mat Collishaw

Matthew "Mat" Collishaw is an artist based in London, and one of the Young British Artists.-Career:Collishaw attended Goldsmiths, University of London , alongside Damien Hirst and other YBA artists....

 and the late Sebastian Horsley

Sebastian Horsley

Sebastian Horsley was a London artist best known for having undergone a voluntary crucifixion. Horsley's writing often revolved around his dysfunctional family, his drug addictions, sex, and his reliance on prostitutes.-Background:Horsley was born in Holderness in the East Riding of Yorkshire...

. The dinner took place at the Imperial War Museum

Imperial War Museum

Imperial War Museum is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. The museum was founded during the First World War in 1917 and intended as a record of the war effort and sacrifice of Britain and her Empire...

 and was hosted by Lord Melvyn Bragg

Melvyn Bragg

Melvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg FRSL FRTS FBA, FRS FRSA is an English broadcaster and author best known for his work with the BBC and for presenting the The South Bank Show...

 and Stephen Fry

Stephen Fry

Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...

, who officially took up his role as President of the mental health charity during the evening.
Prizes auctioned off on the night by Sotheby's auctioneer Lord Dalmeny included a day in the recording studio with The Kooks

The Kooks

The Kooks are an English indie rock band formed in Brighton, East Sussex, in 2001. Formed by Luke Pritchard , Hugh Harris , Paul Garred , and Max Rafferty , the lineup of the band remained constant until 2008 and the departure of Rafferty...

. The menu was designed by Adriano Cavagnini, Executive Chef of the Four Seasons London

Four Seasons London

Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane is a luxury 5-star hotel in London, England. It is located near Hyde Park corner in central London. It was built in 1970 as the Inn on the Park London.-External links:*...

, and drinks were sponsored by Veuve Cliquot.

Partner Events

The Aloysius Society is also partnered with the Inca Ball and the Poppy Ball. Aloysius's Lawrence Barclay and Nadeem Lalani are on the committee of the Inca Ball and Poppy Ball respectively.

Press

Aloysius events have been covered by a wide range of publications, including the Evening Standard

Evening Standard

The Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...

, The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

, Vogue (magazine)

Vogue (magazine)

Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...

, Tatler

Tatler

Tatler has been the name of several British journals and magazines, each of which has viewed itself as the successor of the original literary and society journal founded by Richard Steele in 1709. The current incarnation, founded in 1901, is a glossy magazine published by Condé Nast Publications...

, the Daily Mail

Daily Mail

The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...

, The Sunday Times

The Sunday Times

The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...

 Style magazine, Grazia

Grazia

Grazia is an Italian weekly women's fashion and celebrity gossip magazine, with international editions printed in France, Serbia, Australia, United Kingdom, Greece, Portugal, Japan, the Netherlands, India, Bulgaria and Germany....

, Hello (magazine), Dazed Digital

Dazed Digital

In November 2006 Dazed Group launched a new web based strand of the magazine titled DazedDigital.com, which delivers fashion, film, music and art news and special online events.In 2010 Dazed Group confirmed its digital leading position of the magazine...

, Harper's Bazaar

Harper's Bazaar

Harper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”...

 and Time Out (magazine).