the mysterious ways of the cfda

Bloggers Get to Vote on the CFDA Awards This Year

A curious item in today’s WWD reveals that the CFDA is letting bloggers nominate and vote on this year’s CFDA Fashion Award winners. After dozens of articles over the past few years about fashion bloggers — who they are, where they’re going, whether or not they matter — the industry has seemed to decided that yes! We DO matter! But who among us, exactly?

We received a press release announcing the venue, date, and nomination info on this year’s awards, but we weren’t sent ballots. “Tavi and Bryanboy could influence the next round of CFDA Fashion Award winners,” WWD proclaims. Could it be? Were personal-style bloggers such as Sea of Shoes and Fashion Toast the people with the esteemed opinions the CFDA sought? We polled editors of the blogs we most frequently read. Those at Refinery 29, Racked, and Fashionologie hadn’t received ballots. However, BryanBoy told us in an e-mail that he hadn’t received a ballot either. So which bloggers is WWD talking about?

We called a CFDA spokesman today to inquire. He said he would check with the CFDA and get back to us with what information he could reveal. A few minutes later he called and said he noticed we hadn’t been sent ballots, apologized, and said he would submit us to the CFDA so that we might be included in the voting process this year, after all. Very sweet, but, we assured him, our reportings were not a result of feeling slighted (well, okay, maybe a little). No, we wanted to get to the bottom of this mystery.

The list of those who vote on each year’s awards is printed in the CFDA journal under the heading “CFDA Committee.” The journal is given out at each awards ceremony. You can view 2009’s committee here. It includes mostly top editors and buyers, but no one who just blogs about fashion for a living (though nearly every editor and writer contributes to some blog or other nowadays). Apparently, this year the CFDA decided to include Internet people because many were submitting requests to be a part of the voting process. So being a part of the voting is actually as simple as asking — and then getting accepted. Any bloggers who didn’t receive ballots can simply ask the CFDA to be included this year. The CFDA will review all requests and accept those who “have covered fashion in a significant or knowledgeable way in the past year.” Now that we’re in the running, we feel like we’re trying to join a hip all-blonde sorority or the coolest club in high school. At least the CFDA doesn’t haze … or do they?

BLOG THE VOTE [WWD]

Bloggers Get to Vote on the CFDA Awards This Year