CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Launches Web Series
The Council of Fashion Designers of America/Vogue Fashion Fund premiered its new Web series on Hulu last week. Vogue magazine and the CFDA created the fund to support up-and-coming American fashion designers by awarding winners of the competition $300,000 in financial backing and business mentoring.
The six-part series, which airs on Thursdays, is a departure from many behind-the-scenes reality fashion series in that viewers are allowed to watch the usually private judging meetings.
Ten finalists are selected by a committee of industry experts, including Vogue Editor in Chief Anna Wintour; J. Crew President and Creative Director Jenna Lyons; Andrew Rosen, president and founder of Theory; Jeffrey Kalinsky, executive vice president of designer merchandising of Nordstrom; Proenza Schouler co-founders and designers Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough; Mark Holgate, fashion news director of Vogue; Steven Kolb, chief executive officer of CFDA; Reed Krakoff, president and executive creative director of Coach; and Diane von Furstenberg, president of CFDA and president and founder of Diane von Furstenberg.
Past winners have included Alexander Wang, Sophie Theallet, Rogan and Proenza Schouler, among others.
“Talking to the designers, I realized how hand to mouth their existence was,” Wintour said in the video. “We want to support designers that are going to be the American fashion designers of the future and that are totally committed to being in the business for the long term.”
After hearing from some of the past year’s winners, a variety of applicants are briefly introduced through footage of them in their daily life—sketching, managing their stores, or making clothing or jewelry—before the show segues into judging.
Joe Haller and Ian Hannula of San Francisco’s Nice Collective were two of the applicants, but they didn’t make it as finalists, despite Kalinksy’s active championing of them.
Joseph Altuzarra, Antonio Azzuolo, Max Osterweis and Erin Beatty, Carlos Campos, Shane Gabier and Christopher Peters, Michelle Ochs and Carly Cushnie, Dana Lorenz, Soraya Silchenstedt, Pamela Love, and Flora Gill and Alexa Adams make up the group of 10 finalist labels.
Viewers can watch each new webisode for a week after it debuts online at Hulu, with the series ending on March 1.—Deidre Crawford
