How late cosmetics mogul Leonard Lauder gave Elizabeth Hurley first modeling gig at age 29

A who’s-who of fashion flooded Lincoln Center on Monday night to remember visionary Estee Lauder mogul Leonard Lauder.

VIP guests at “Leonard A. Lauder: A Celebration of Life & Legacy” at the David H. Koch Theater included designers Michael Kors, Vera Wang, Tory Burch, Donna Karan, Tommy Hilfiger and Diane von Furstenberg, as well as models Elizabeth Hurley, Karlie Kloss, Paulina Porizkova and Carolyn Murphy.

Hollywood types spotted included Disney CEO Bob Iger and “Murphy Brown” star Candice Bergen.

Hurley — who landed her first ever modeling job with Estée Lauder, and became a global ambassador for the company’s breast cancer awareness campaign — recalled how she was discovered by Leonard, who passed away at age 92 on June 14. 

“He personally chose me to be the new face of Estee Lauder, and I was just an actress,” recalled Hurley, 60. “I’d never modeled a day in my life, and I was just 29… which, back then in 1995, a model that age was considered way past her sell-by date. So he took a big risk on me. And that was typical of the Leonard that I grew to know and love.”

The “Austin Powers” star also recalled of the cosmetics tycoon: “He was magnificent, but more than that he was one of the kindest and most loyal people I ever met.”

“He was always the first person to pick up the phone to call me,” in good times and bad, she said.

“He took a whole week off work to come to my wedding in India, and I will never forget the site of Leonard twirling across the dancefloor, pink turban flying… Then seeing him surrounded by a gaggle of my friends… he was holding court of course, and they were all hanging on his every word, they were fascinated by him.”

(Hurley married textile heir Arun Nayar in a multiday wedding in 2007 at Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur. The couple divorced in 2011.)

She told the crowd how he’d personally designed a Lauder lipstick to close with the “thunk of an expensive car door closing.” “I think that was really his genius — he was always striving to make everything special,” she said.

Hurley also said of Leonard’s brilliance in business: “For a very masculine man he certainly knew his onions when it came to what women wanted on their bathroom shelves.”

“Leonard was not a fair-weather friend,” said Hurley, (who appeared without her current beau, country star Billy Ray Cyrus). “I’m going to miss that big smile of his and those huge outstretched arms.”

She teared up when quoting “Romeo and Juliet” to close her remarks.

Also in attendance at the memorial event — where the dress code was “celebratory, with a touch of pink” as a nod to the Lauders’ philanthropic efforts — were family members including Leonard’s brother Ronald, sons Gary and William, and beloved second wife, Judith Glickman Lauder.

Leonard’s late first wife, Evelyn Lauder, famously created the Breast Cancer Research Foundation in 1993, along with the charity’s signature pink ribbon symbol.

Brother Ronald said of Leonard, who we previously reported was remembered at a Central Synagogue service earlier this year, “This man did not do it for show. He really, truly cared. It wasn’t just words, like you hear many people say every day, when they leave one another, ‘I love you.’ When Leonard said it, he meant it.”

Son William recalled that his dad, “was born into a depression between world wars. He had every right to fear the future. Yet when he looked at the world, he saw beauty. He saw a future in which every child could access art, healthcare, and education, a world with less plain and more pink. He could look at a brand, a museum, a hospital, or a playground, envision its fullest potential, and through leadership and partnership, bring it to life.”

Leonard was also a famed art collector who donated $1 billion in Cubist works in 2013 to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Met’s “Cubism and the Trompe l’Oeil Tradition” co-curator Emily Braun, and former Whitney Museum director Adam D. Weinberg, also spoke at the Lincoln Center event.

Sotheby’s will sell off an estimated $400 million in art from Leonard’s collection in November, including Gustav Klimt‘s “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (1914–16)” — which is expected to bring in more than $150 million alone, according to ARTnews.