amfAR, the foundation Elizabeth Taylor helped found to fight AIDS in 1985, holds its second London gala at The Chancery Rosewood on Friday 16 October 2026, honouring Philip Treacy and Jeremy Irons.
amfAR, the AIDS research foundation, holds its second London gala at The Chancery Rosewood in Mayfair on Friday 16 October 2026. It honours the milliner Philip Treacy with the Award of Excellence and Jeremy Irons with the Award of Inspiration.
amfAR was formed in September 1985 from the merger of two young research foundations. Elizabeth Taylor became its founding international chair and used her standing to raise money and bring the subject into rooms that refused it.
The geneticist Mathilde Krim worked alongside her and ran the organisation for two decades. amfAR has funded HIV research for 40 years and now backs the search for a cure.
The gala grew out of Taylor’s method, since copied by cause after cause. It puts the money and the visibility in the same room on the same night.
The first London edition took the same house in October 2025, the week the hotel opened, and raised $2.1 million. This year’s date again sits in Frieze week, against the film festival, when the city’s art and film money is already in town.
Of the many galas that week, this is the one given to a single cause, HIV research.