The 2024 CFDA Awards Honor Next Generation of American Fashion Designers

There was excitement buzzing in the air Monday night at the American Museum of Natural History, where the Hollywood crowd and fashion industry power players mingled and celebrated American fashion at the 2024 CFDA Fashion Awards presented by Amazon Fashion.

Shuffling from cocktail hour in the Hall of African Mammals to dinner and the awards ceremony in the Hall of Ocean Life was an A-list crowd including Kylie Jenner, Jordan Roth, Jenna Lyons, Ciara, Molly Ringwald, Coco Rocha, Addison Rae, Troye Sivan, Blake Lively, Law Roach, J. Balvin, Tyla, Ella Emhoff, Angel Reese, Lucky Blue, Nara Smith and Cynthia Erivo, the host of the night’s festivities clad initially in a custom caped black gown designed by Zac Posen in the GapStudio.

Sen. Kristen Gillibrand kicked off the evening with opening remarks, quoting last year’s host Anne Hathaway. “She said fashion is a dream in which you can live, but what if it was more just a dream? What if the creativity, the diversity, the culture that we have here tonight could actually change the world,” she said, calling the crowd to action ahead of Tuesday’s upcoming election, which was a theme again and again in the evening’s speeches.

“American fashion and creativity has never been stronger. I stand here recognizing that this room represents that excellence. Excellence in creativity, in diversity, in the strength in the stories we have to tell. We are all responsible for showing the world how strong our voices can be, how strong our voices are. Our voices extended so much further than the walls of this group, which is why it is our responsibility now more than ever to use our voices to change the world,” CFDA chairman Thom Browne echoed during his remarks. “Fashion like democracy is about choices and individual decisions that have the power to create culture and communities and define the future we want, we need and we deserve.”

Following the prompt 8 p.m. dinner of chicken pot pie beneath the big blue whale, host of the evening and Tony, Emmy and Grammy award winner and Academy Award-nominated actress and songwriter Erivo kicked off the awards ceremony. At the tables a who’s who of American design was gathered including Catherine Holstein, Wes Gordon, Tommy Hilfiger, Vera Wang, Christian Siriano, Kenneth Cole, Anna Sui, Bach Mai (who sat with philanthropist Yao King; designers Kim Shui, Olivia Cheng, Kozaburo Akasaka, Grace Ling and their VIP guests at the first AAPI Emerging Designers Table) and many more.

Rachel Scott for Diotima was named one of the big winners of the night by presenter Da’Vine Joy Randolph as American Womenswear Designer of the Year. 

Scott and Henry Zankov of Zankov, who was awarded Google American Emerging Designer of the Year Award by Molly Gordon and designer Brandon Maxwell, were both named runners-up for the 2023 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, making the leap in just a year to top awards.

“I’ve prepared a speech this year, just in case, but I’m honestly still recovering from the nomination. I’ve spent so much of my career on design teams that I’m really not accustomed to this kind of recognition but what it means to me, and the true fact of the matter is that much of this support is for everyone who has helped me so much to build this,” Scott said, thanking her mother, her wife and the Jamaican female artisans “who create the most beautiful crochet that I’m so honored to bring to the world.” 

Willy Chavarria took home the American Menswear Designer of the Year award for the second year in a row, presented by Troye Sivan, while Raul Lopez of Luar was awarded his second American Accessory Designer of the Year title by Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton. 

The first honor of the evening was presented by Marc Jacobs to Hamish Bowles, who was awarded the Founder’s Award in Honor of Eleanor Lambert.

“There is no one I know who is more sensitively connected to the past of fashion, its traditions of craft and its deep roots in centuries of art and decoration. But there’s also no one with a more avid eye for fashion’s present and future. The way that it exists, not just as a concept for a new collection, but as the spark of an entire creative world that we can live in,” Jacobs remarked. 

Other honors were awarded to photographer Annie Leibovitz, who received the Media Award in honor of Eugenia Sheppard with a special “fashion badge of honor” from Anna Wintour and Browne, acknowledging the dreamy fashion editorials and portraits she has created over the years, even as a “non-fashion person” as she said. Stuart Vevers accepted the Innovation Award, presented by Amazon Fashion, from Kelsea Ballerini and Charles Melton, celebrating Coach’s subbrand Coachtopia, which focuses on sustainability, waste reduction and circular fashion.

“Being recognized this early in the journey of Coachtopia, it makes me really proud of what we’ve achieved. Hopefully this will give encouragement to our whole industry to do things differently,” Vevers told WWD ahead of the ceremony of the project that was inspired in part by his desire to build a better world for his twins.

Legendary designer Stephen Burrows received the Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement award from Donna Karan and Todd Oldham for his incredible, energetic clothing, his contribution to fostering diversity in American fashion, and elevating it on the global stage at the Battle of Versailles. Michael Kors received the Positive Change Award from presenter Blake Lively for his work fighting hunger through Watch Hunger Stop, his campaign in support of the United Nations World Food Programme and his support of God’s Love We Deliver.

Molly Ringwald took the stage to present the Board of Directors Tribute Award to the late Cuban American talent Isabel Toledo, renamed in her honor to the Isabel Toledo Board of Directors’ Tribute and accepted by her husband, Ruben Toledo.

“Isabel is surely with us tonight, in spirit. Embracing us, embracing this award and embracing this acknowledgement. We always felt that our true purpose is to create heaven on earth for each other. An artist can only float as high and for as long as the audience allows them. I salute you all for inspiring Isabel to soar as high and gracefully as she did. With his namesake award, I vow to keep her vision going forward,” Toledo said to the teary-eyed crowd, remembering his wife, who famously dressed First Lady Michelle Obama in a yellow tweed coat and dress for President Barack Obama’s first inauguration.

Amy Griffin gave the International Designer of the Year Award to Daniel Roseberry for Schiaparelli. Roseberry thanked his family, his mentor Browne (who hired Roseberry when he was 23), Griffin and his person, Adam Selman, who once told him, “Dreams are expensive.”

“This dream that came true of working in Paris and being an American Couturier an ocean away, has come at a cost. I know I’m in a room full of people whose dreams, some of them have come true, and I know you know exactly what I’m talking about. And even though I have missed my friends, I’ve missed my family, I’ve missed my person, and I’ve missed this city, I have never once questioned that Paris is where I was meant to be, nor that what we’ve been building at Maison Schiaparelli really has some greater value in this industry,” Roseberry said. 

Before the final award of the night was given to Scott, André 3000 took to the stage to present the Thom Browne-clad Erykah Badu as this year’s Fashion Icon. 

“I’ve been waiting a long time. I’ve been trying to win this award since I was 6,” Badu said, describing her everlasting love of fashion as her sport, therapy, inspiration and personal power — “What I’m trying to say is, I can dress.”