Last night, menswear designer Billy Reid won the seventh CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund prize, which includes $300,000, a year of mentorship, and a bronze trophy. The prize money increased $100,000 this year, thanks to a partnership with J.Crew and underwriters that include L’Oréal Paris, Nordstrom, Theory, American Express, Barneys New York, Coach, Juicy Couture, Appleman Foundation, Liz Claiborne Inc., Lord & Taylor, and Vogue. This year’s runners-up, who win $100,000 and a year of mentorship, are Prabal Gurung and jewelry designer Eddie Borgo. Anna Wintour told us last night at the ceremony before the winners were announced that the prize was important most of all because of the “recognition from the judges.” However, though she was obviously on the judging panel, she said she didn’t know who the winner was. “It’s a silent ballot,” she explained. “None of [the judges] know. We only voted this morning.” Meanwhile, the nominees were announced in July.
But someone knew the winner before it was announced at the ceremony. Last night, WWD tweeted the winner and then took the tweet down since it hadn’t been announced at the ceremony. However, the news was naturally re-tweeted before the winner was announced at the event anyway. Though Google is wedging itself into the fashion arena, the sponsor of last night’s ceremony was their allegedly less sexy counterpart, eBay.
This year’s other nominees who sadly went home empty-handed were Joseph Altuzarra of Altuzarra; Christian Cota; Robert Geller; Oliver Helden and Paul Marlow of Loden Dager; Pamela Love of Pamela Love Jewelry; Moss Lipow; and Gregory Parkinson. Previous winners of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund include Sophie Theallet, Alexander Wang, Rogan Gregory of Rogan, Doo-Ri Chung, Trovata, and Proenza Schouler’s Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough.
With reporting by Jamie Miles.
