CFDA/Vgue Fashion Fund on Ovation Week 1

 

So last night was episode 1 of “The Fashion Fund” a documentary about the CFDA Fashion Fund. We had the chance to see an inside look. The committee and former entries into the process informed us of how it felt to be apart of the process and also why the mentor/scholarship program exists. It was probably one of my favorite shows of the night. Its was laid out over an hour(which was my only moment to pull back because I feel due to all the commercials it could have been 30 minutes). We saw different types of portfolios, the table debate, where each judge talked about there favorites and they attempted to choose 10 finalist. Below is the list of the Class of 2013:

Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne, Public School

Jason Jones and Mike Feldman, Parabellum

Juan Carlos Obando, Juan Carlos Obando

Marc Alary, Marc Alary

Misha Nonoo, Nonoo

Ryan Lobo and Ramon Martin, TOME

Shimon Ovadia and Ariel Ovadia, Ovadia & Sons

Tim Coppens, Tim Coppens

Todd Snyder, Todd Snyder

Veronica Swanson Beard and Veronica Miele Beard, Veronica Beard

The designers of Veronica Beard are sisters in law. Public School worked for Sean John for a time. Ovadia & Sons are twins from Brooklyn. These are just a small hint at things that you will see. I can’t wait to see the studio visits, the 10 day test, and the 15 minute timer timed presentation directly to the committee. Can’t wait to see the process. Below I’ve placed the names of the committee, who goes from Anna Wintour and Jenna Lyons to the newly appointed designers of Rag and Bone.

Ken Downing, Senior VP/ Fashion Director, NEIMAN MARCUS

David Neville and Marcus Wainwright, Managing Partners, RAG & BONE

Mark Holgate, Fashion News Director, VOGUE

Jeffrey Kalinsky, President, JEFFREY and Executive Vice President, NORDSTROM

Steven Kolb, CEO, CFDA

Reed Krakoff, President, Executive Creative Director, COACH

Jenna Lyons, Executive Creative Director, J.CREW

Andrew Rosen, President and Founder, THEORY

Diane von Furstenberg, President, CFDA

Anna Wintour, Editor in Chief, VOGUE

 

“Buckle Down”- next week is Presentation day. 15 minutes to present your line, your ideal, and your aesthetic. Literally theres you, your models, the committee, and a timer that will ding and stop you. You also have to talk your business. Its a true test. Watch next week on Ovation on Wednesday at 10pm. See you there!

 

Check out exclusive videos on the Fashion Fund page at Vogue.com.

http://video.vogue.com/series/cfda-vogue-fashion-fund

Fashion Friday Spotlight: CFDA Fashion Fund

 

I thought since today is Friday and I wanted to devote it to fashion, I would start with the CFDA Fashion Fund. I already explained what it is and about its up coming show.  So in the article posting today I wanted to let you see fully the Fashion Fund is about. Posted to the Vogue website is 2 seasons of the documentary that Vogue already had about the Fashion Fund. It would be a great pre-cursor to the Ovation show. Check it out, i’ve seen every episode and will probably watch again just to get excited for whats to come.

CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Series

CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Official Site

Episode 1 “Welcome to the CFDA/Fashion Fund”

CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund is coming to your TV!! Jan 22nd on Ovation

 

About a year ago i heard that the CFDA and Vogue had partnered to bring the Fashion Fund to TV in a documentary like series to show viewers. I was astounded and waited in baited breath to hear about it. Then i randomly came across the date and the place-  Wednesday, January 22nd on Ovation. Pretty exciting. Well i think so. Then as I asked around I noticed most in my circle or even people I worked with didn’t know how great this was. I’ll explain

     The CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund is a scholarship awarded by Vogue Magazine and the Council of Fashion Designers of America. The scholarship is awarded to designers that have submitted themselves in hopes to better there line and hopefully one day make it a household name. The process entails submitting a portfolio, an interview and short presentation, judges visit to your studio/workplace/or some sort to see how you work and prepare your line and inspirations, runway presentation, dinner party showing off a sort of HW assignment given with a theme to show how you work with a given task, and finally awarding the 2 runner ups and the winner at the CFDA Awards. The winner receive prize money for their line, so do those the 2 runner ups and they both get mentors who are major designers themselves.  Now reading this you still may not hear or understand why this is still a major thing for fashion. But if you’ve ever watched a red carpet or come across a major fashion publication you may have heard the names Marchesa, Proenza Schouler, Zac Posen, Thom Browne, Band of Outsiders, Philip Lim, Derek Lam, Alexander Wang and many more. All these names have at some point entered in the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund and they are all some of the hugest name sin fashion today. With underwriters of the fund like American Express, Vogue, Carolina Herrera, Coach, Nordstrom, and J Crew as a partner, there’s not much to say about the expertise and care that has gone into this scholarship program to help designers. The scholarship and exposure is so profound that some of the biggest names seen to come out of it were not winners, but second runner ups or just entries. Ovation has done a great thing bringing this exposure forth.  I can’t wait to see Anna Wintour, Diana Von Furstenburg, Jenna Lyons on screen and taking care to bring us new designers and help them find their way. Throughout the season I will give updates and talk about the final set of designers and give my insight of the process. Also if possible post videos or links to the episodes from Ovation’s website.  Who’s as excited as me? Who’s ready to see this years crop of entries?