Council of Fashion Designers of America
The Council of Fashion Designers of America, Inc. (CFDA), founded in 1962 by publicist Eleanor Lambert,[1] is a not-for-profit trade association of over 450 American fashion and accessory designers. The first president of the Council was Sydney Wragge [2](till 1965). As of 2009, Diane von Fürstenberg was the group's president and Steven Kolb the CEO. The organization's stated mission is to strengthen the influence and success of American designers in the global economy.
In addition to hosting the annual CFDA Fashion Awards, the organization seeks to develop future American design talent through scholarships and support and resources in high schools, colleges, and post-graduate schools. The CFDA also provides funds to support working designers during their careers and provides business opportunities for the membership. Through the CFDA Foundation, it mobilizes its membership to support charitable causes.
Awards
The CFDA Fashion Awards, which honors excellence in fashion design, has been called "the Oscars of fashion".[3][4] Nominations are submitted by the Fashion Guild, a group of over 1,500 CFDA members, fashion editors, retailers, and stylists.[5] Award winners are voted on and announced at an annual black tie event held at Lincoln Center in New York City. Award winners receive a trophy made by the New York firm Society Awards.[6]
This is a selected list of winners.
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Collaborations
In 2010 the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalists Monique Péan, Patrik Ervell, and Sophie Theallet teamed up with Gap Inc..[7] In 2012 and 2013 the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winners and runners-up each created capsule collections with J. Crew.
In celebration of the organization's 50th Anniversary, Target and Neiman Marcus partnered with 24 CFDA members to create a special holiday collection that was available at both retailers. Additionally, the CFDA has partnered with Kohl’s on designer collaborations such as Derek Lam for Kohl’s and most recently, Catherine Malandrino for Kohl’s.
On October 3, 2013 the CFDA and Google+ launched an innovative shopping tool, titled “Shoppable Hangouts,” where users had the ability to shop Hangouts on Air (HOA). The CFDA kicked off the product launch with CFDA President Diane von Fürstenberg. Rachel Zoe, Marcus Wainwright and David Neville of rag & bone, and Rebecca Minkoff also participated in the Shoppable Hangout experience.
CFDA Programs
The CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund
The CFDA and Vogue Magazine have created an endowment for the stated purpose of funding significant financial awards to one or more designers and provide business mentoring. Award recipients are selected by a committee of industry experts.
The CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Selection Committee annually selects three emerging fashion designers, who receive:
(1) Business mentoring from an established team of fashion industry professionals, in areas such as business planning, marketing, sourcing, production, exporting etc. and
(2) To encourage and enable the recipients to pursue his/her own independent design plan (one winner at $300,000 and two runners-up at $100,000 each).
The CFDA {FASHION INCUBATOR} Program
The CFDA {FASHION INCUBATOR} is a business development program designed to support the next generation of fashion designers in New York City. The program provides a creative professional environment with the mission of helping to grow and sustain the businesses of the 10 participating brands over the course of the two-year program. By offering low-cost design studio space, business mentoring, educational seminars, and networking opportunities, the program provides a way for participants to reach their full potential and become an integral part of the New York Fashion community. In 2010, the program partnered with New York University’s Stern School of Business to create a Masters Workshop that pairs their top MBA Students with the designers to work on business development projects.
Successful alumni of the Incubator program include Prabal Gurung and the 2013 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winners, Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne of Public School.
The 4.0 class (2016-2018) of the {FASHION INCUBATOR} includes Alexandra Alvarez of Alix, Aurora James of Brother Vellies, Charles Youssef, Daniel DuGoff of Ddugoff, Tim Joo and Dan Joo of Haerfest, Jason Alkire and Julie Alkire of Haus Alkire, Ji Oh, Katie deGuzman and Michael Miller of K/ller Collection, Thaddeus O’Neil, and Molly Yestadt of Yestadt Millinery. [8]
The Fashion Manufacturing Initiative
The Fashion Manufacturing Initiative (FMI) is an investment fund to help revitalize New York City’s garment industry. The program offers matching financial grants to New York City’s fashion manufacturing production facilities.
In March 2018, the CFDA and NYCA announced that the following seven production facilities would receive a combined total of $480,000 in the fifth round of FMI grants: Atelier Amelia, Sunrise Studio, In Style USA, Mudo Fashion, New York Embroidery Studio, Season Wash, and Werkstatt.[9]
Fashion Targets Breast Cancer
Fashion Targets Breast Cancer® (FTBC), a charitable initiative of the CFDA/CFDA Foundation, seeks to raise public awareness and funds for the breast cancer cause.
The Fashion Targets Breast Cancer name and symbol were created by Ralph Lauren and subsequently entrusted to the CFDA Foundation. FTBC was first presented in the U.S. in the spring of 1994 during New York Fashion Week, and was formally launched in September 1994 at a special White House reception hosted by then-First Lady Hillary Clinton. During this initial campaign, 400,000 FTBC shirts were sold, raising $2 million to benefit the Nina Hyde Center for Breast Health at the Lombardi Cancer Center at Georgetown University Medical Center. This center was chosen as beneficiary at Ralph Lauren’s request, in memory of his friend Nina Hyde, the former fashion editor of The Washington Post, who died of breast cancer in 1990.
Since 2011, the Council has led an annual campaign to promote the initiative and partners with well known fashion icons. In 2017, Fabletics partnered with Fashion Targets Breast Cancer to produce an activewear collection. A portion of all sales for the collection would be donated to target breast cancer screening and treatment.[10][11]
To date, nearly $50 million has been granted to breast cancer charities worldwide from FTBC campaigns. CFDA Members have designed special FTBC branded or inspired merchandise, which was either sold or auctioned over the course of the campaign.
CFDA Scholarship Program
The Scholarship Program was created to award annual merit-based scholarship grants to students who study in a four-year, full-time college level design program. It has awarded $1,399,250 to students.[12] The Geoffrey Beene Design Scholarship Award, the Liz Claiborne Design Scholarship Award, and the CFDA/Teen Vogue Scholarship Award in partnership with Target selected scholars from one of the CFDA’s 20 participating design schools and donated $25,000 towards tuition and educational expenses. The awards are based solely on merit and judged by a panel of industry experts.
Published works
The CFDA has published nine books:
- American Fashion
- American Fashion Accessories
- American Fashion Menswear
- American Fashion Home
- American Fashion Cookbook
- Geoffrey Beene: An American Fashion Rebel
- American Travel
- IMPACT: Fifty Years of the Council of Fashion Designers of America
- The Pursuit of Style: Advice and Musings from America's Top Fashion Designers
See also
References
- ↑ CFDA. "History". CFDA. Retrieved 2016-03-08.
- ↑ CFDA. "History". CFDA. Retrieved 2016-03-08.
- ↑ "The CFDA Fashion Awards: The 'Oscars of fashion'". CNN. 2013-06-04.
- ↑ thedailybeast.com CFDA awards, the Oscars of fashion 2009/06/15
- ↑ "2008 Annual Report" (PDF). Cfda.org. Retrieved 2015-07-17.
- ↑ "On The Up And Up | PPAI Publications". Pubs.ppai.org. 2014-12-31. Retrieved 2015-07-17.
- ↑ "The Winner & Runners-Up of the 2013 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund". CFDA. 2013-11-12. Retrieved 2015-07-17.
- ↑ Yotka, Steff (2016-05-25). "This Is the Next Wave of Young American Designers". Vogue. Retrieved 2016-12-28.
- ↑ Scarano, Genevieve (2018-03-02). "CFDA and NYCEDC Present Fifth Round of FMI Grant Fund Recipients". Sourcing Journal. Retrieved 2018-03-03.
- ↑ Eli Flesch. "Kate Hudson Launches Breast Cancer Awareness Collection with Fabletics". Stylecaster. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
- ↑ Marcy Medina (September 27, 2017). "Kate Hudson unveils CFDA and Fabletics' Fashion Targets Breast Cancer collection". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
- ↑ "CFDA Scholarship Program". Cfda.com. Council of Fashion Designers of America. Retrieved 25 June 2015.