A couple of weeks ago, a glitzy black-tie charity dinner took place at New York’s Lincoln Center to raise funds for social, educational and cultural projects focused on women. No surprise, perhaps: now that autumn – or “fall” – is under way in New York, lavish philanthropic dinners are happening every night.

The Lincoln Center event was typical of the genre: hordes of tall, thin women bedecked in expensive gowns like glossy human giraffes; mediocre food and cheap champagne; and a flurry of emotional speeches that prompted the wealthy diners to make hefty pledges.

This particular dinner, though, had a striking twist. The charity being celebrated that night was the Brazil Foundation, a group that does laudable work among women in places such as Rio de Janeiro. The diners included not just the usual wealthy Americans but Brazilians too – and it was the latter who were most ostentatiously opening their purses.