The Council of Fashion Designers of America released the nominees for the this morning (July 21, 2020) and noted the winners will be revealed on cfda.com and the brand’s social channels the morning of September 14th, kicking off the official New York Fashion Week schedule.
For this year only, the CFDA has decided to focus on designer nominee categories and forgo honoree awards. The organization has also added two new categories recognizing designers outside of the United States: global women’s designer of the year and global men’s designer of the year.
The 2020 CFDA Fashion Awards were originally set for June 8, 2020, but due to COVID-19, the annual event recognizing American fashion designers was indefinitely postponed.
“In this time of unprecedented challenge and change for our industry, we feel very strongly that it is important to recognize the nominees representing the best of fashion creativity. We look forward to returning to an in-person celebration honoring the American fashion industry in 2021.” said Tom Ford, who’s overseeing his second award event following his appointment as chairman just prior to the CFDA’s 2019 event. “
Stirring some controversy, Ford was nominated for the the organization’s two most prestigious awards, women’s and men’s designer of the year. In addition to receiving a lifetime achievement award in 2014, he’s also won six other awards, but hasn’t been among the nominees since 2015.
At the same time, in a year in which a benefit of the Black Lives Matter movement has been the amplification and elevation of the work of Black designers, the nominees overall continue to be not only predictably similar to prior years but also overwhelmingly white. Among nominees for the two most prestigious awards, Pyer Moss creative director Kerby Jean-Raymond is the only Black designer.
Check out the nominees below.
America womenswear designer: Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen for The Row; Brandon Maxwell; Gabriela Hearst; Marc Jacobs and Tom Ford.
American menswear designer: Emily Adams Bode for Bode; Kerby Jean Raymond for Pyer Moss; Thom Browne; Todd Snyder and Tom Ford.
Accessories designer: Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen for The Row; Gabriela Hearst; Jennifer Fisher for Jennifer Fisher Jewelry; Stuart Vevers for Coach and Telfar Clemens for Telfar.
Emerging designer: Christoper John Rogers; Kenneth Nicolson; Peter Do; Reese Cooper and Sarah Staudinger and George Augusto for STAUD.
Global women’s designer: Daniel Lee for Bottega Veneta; Dries Van Noten; Miuccia Prada for Prada; Pierpaolo Piccioli for Valentino and Rick Owens.
Global menwear’s designer: Craig Green; Dries Van Noten; Jonathan Anderson for Loewe; Kim Jones for Dior and Virgil Abloh for Louis Vuitton.
Nominations for each award category were submitted prior to the March 13 deadline by the CFDA Fashion Awards Guild, which is comprised of members of the CFDA, along with top fashion retailers, journalists and stylists. Voting for members opens today and ends on July 27 at midnight EST.
