Fashion Group International Presents Awards to Industry’s Rising Stars

The next generation of fashion stars was celebrated at the Fashion Group International’s Rising Stars luncheon on Monday.

The 28th edition of the high-energy annual event presented awards to creators in a wide range of categories, from ready-to-wear and eveningwear to content and retail tech.

The event also served to introduce the inaugural Future Fashion Award sponsored by Macy’s, that went to a college student.

After posing on the red carpet, the attendees were seated at tables at the 583 Park Avenue event space.

Ken Downing, creative director of Halston, grabbed a mic and worked the room, asking the finalists what inspired them. Try as he might, there were so many nominees, 44, in so many categories (nine), he only managed to get through around half.

Maryanne Grisz, FGI’s president and chief executive officer, said there were initially more than 100 nominations and it took the judges a year to make their selections.

“At Fashion Group International, we believe connections matter. The 28th edition of the FGI Rising Star Awards exemplifies our organization’s broader mission to educate, connect, and support industry professionals at every stage of their careers, from legacy leaders and iconic visionaries to the emerging talent we gathered to celebrate today.”

Before the awards were handed out, FGI also presented three special commendations: the President’s Award for Excellence to Terry Singh, the Hilldun Innovation Award to Ann Wehren of In Seam and the Future Fashion Award, which went to Fatmata Camara of LIM College who received a $1,000 stipend to continue her studies.

The winners in each of the categories — which were presented by a wide range of industry figures including designers Jeffrey Banks, Ralph Rucci and Nicole Miller, the Museum of Art and Design’s Bryna Pomp and Coresight Research’s Deborah Weinswig — were awarded to Amy and Leo Voloshin of PrintFresh who took home the award for intimate/swim and Maya Wang of Fried Rice who won in the casualwear category.

The ready-to-wear award went to Michael Ward and Manel Garcia Espejo of TheSalting; the eveningwear award was actually a tie with both Kate Barton of Kate Barton and Cyril Verdavainne of Verdavainne taking home the honor. 

The fine jewelry award went to Jared Atelier x Shy Dayan of Jared The Galleria of Jewelry, and Guillaume Larquemain of Guillaume Larquemain was the winner in the accessories category.

The Beauty Entrepreneur award went to Linda Treska of Pinch of Colour, the contact creator award to Alison Bruhn and Delia Folk of The Style that Binds Us, and Kimberly Carney of The Wires won the Retail Tech award.

The FGI Rising Star Awards have helped launch careers of several of fashion’s biggest names including Tory Burch, Jason Wu, Brandon Maxwell, Thom Browne, Monica Rich Kosann, Dylan Lauren of Dylan’s Candy Bar; Jennifer Fleiss and Jennifer Hyman of Rent The Runway, and Rachel Shechtman of Story.