The CFDA Fashion Awards covered all the bases Monday night, with multiple awards for established, emerging and international designers, a fashion icon, an editor in chief, along with a film and a musical guest.
While the stars were out in full force — Jennifer Lawrence, Rihanna, A$AP Rocky, Leslie Bibb, Naomi Watts, Naomi Campbell, Bernadette Peters, Angel Reese and Venus Williams to name a few — there were also plenty of industry executives.
Tory Burch, Michael Kors, Vera Wang, Wes Gordon, Tracy Reese, Kenneth Cole, Nicole Miller, Ronny Kobo, Roopal Patel, Linda Fargo, Tracy Margolies, Marc Metrick, Emily Smith, Prabal Gurung, Zac Posen, Bethann Hardison, Danielle Frankel, Emily Adams Bode, Jonathan Simkhai and Ulla Johnson were among those that attended the event that stretched to nearly 11 p.m.
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The event also featured a short film, “CFDA American Fashion 2025,” by Nian Fish and musical guest Olivia Dean, along with a dinner of chicken pot pie, the traditional main course at the CFDA Fashion Awards.
To kick off the program, Thom Browne, chairman of the CFDA, who also happened to win his fourth American Menswear Designer of the Year Award that evening, said, “Thank you for being here this evening. Thank you to everyone here to making American fashion the best that it can be. Without everyone in this room we wouldn’t be here today.” He also acknowledged the late Giorgio Armani and Diane Keaton.
Browne said that looking around the room reminded him of the diversity and talent that the American fashion industry represents, and the work they put in to be able to celebrate these moments. “Which is why it’s more important to make sure our voices are still heard today, tomorrow and forever,” he continued.
Browne introduced the winner of the Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award Ralph Rucci, praising his commitment to craft and exceptionally executed quality. He pointed out that Rucci is one of the very few American designers to join the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture and “has led with a commitment to beauty and championing American fashion.”
In accepting his award Rucci, who’s been in business 45 years, said he tends not to speak too much about his work and believes in the quietude of fashion. “I don’t see sparkles. I like the work to be about the internal belief and the importance of silence.” He thanked the many women in his life who taught him how to dress them. “Nothing was possible in my career without the team of artisans that I have,” said Rucci.
Teyana Taylor, the evening’s host, gave a shout-out to Amazon Fashion as the event’s partner. “Because nothing says high fashion like ordering couture with free two-day shipping,” she said. Taylor joked that as host, she was supposed to tell the audience “everything that I got going on, and you know it’s not really much.” She then went on to say she’s “a simple girl, just being a mother, a singer, actress, director…” and is currently going to culinary school to become a chef and is starring in “One Battle After Another,” and Ryan Murphy’s “All’s Fair,” that premiered Tuesday.
Ralph Lauren was awarded the American Womenswear Designer of the Year, and was presented that honor by Naomi Watts. This is Lauren’s second time winning this award, the first time in 1995. Throughout his career, the CFDA has bestowed numerous awards on the 86-year-old designer, namely the Lifetime Achievement Award, Womenswear Designer of the Year, Menswear Designer of the Year, Award for Humanitarian Leadership, and Retailer of the Year.
Lauren accepted the award from his table. He later said, “My history with the CFDA is long and inspiring. I am thrilled to receive the Womenswear Designer of the Year award. I have amazing teams in this company and want to particularly recognize my women’s teams for their dedication and commitment to my vision. It has always been about dreaming together.”
Ariana De Bose and Amber Valletta, who was dressed in Versace’s iconic jungle dress she wore down the runway over 20 years ago and then famously worn by Jennifer Lopez on the red carpet, presented Donatella Versace with the Positive Change Award for her lifelong advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community, commitment to inclusivity and diversity in fashion, and significant philanthropic work.
Versace said that this award is vital for making the world a better place for the next generation. “Please never never compromise your vision. Great creativity is born from diversity. It has no color, no gender, no sexual orientation — it lives in every voice that is brave. To all the fashion community, remember. Fearless people make fearless fashion. Business must never kill our creativity. Without that, there would be no business at all. Keep fighting for the freedom that matters most. The freedom of our ideas.”
Julianne Moore gave the Founder’s Award in honor of Eleanor Lambert to her friend Cynthia Rowley. “Cynthia Rowley leads with friendship,” said Moore. “She offers it easily with no strings attached. But it comes with dinners, kickball games and offers to park in a driveway, wetsuits and summer jobs for your kid in her store… She does all of this while parenting two extraordinary women” and traveling to exotic places all over the world. Moore said that Rowley is proof that “ambition, achievement, kindness and creativity can all exist” in the same person.
“This is an incredible honor,” said Rowley, walking up to the podium to “Don’t Stop Me Now.”
“Trust me, I’m as surprised as you guys are,” said Rowley. “Never in a billion years did I expect this. Growing up in a small town was pretty boring, but I think a little of being bored fosters creativity, fosters imaginations, fantasy and curiosity; mix that with a little practical Midwest business sense, and a U-Haul, and that’s how I got to New York, the place where dreams truly do come true. I told myself if I last only six months, at least I can say I tried, because this business is not for the faint of heart. You got to put in the hours, you got to put in the years, you got to put in the decades. If I broke any rules, it was because I never knew what the rules were. My last real job, I was a bartender.”
“Every day I feel so much that my job is actually to have an idea and then make it a reality. To me, that just feels like a magic trick. Nothing gives me more satisfaction and joy than the work,” said Rowley.
Wintour, who was celebrating her 76th birthday that day, took the stage to honor her friend, A$AP Rocky, “although telling Rocky that he’s a fashion icon is a bit like telling Carlos Alcaraz that he has a good backhand,” she said. “There is no indication that he’s a man who need to be told.” She recalled when a member of the Vogue team once asked him who his greatest beauty influence was, Rocky’s answer was himself. Earlier this year when he co-chaired the Met exhibition, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” he cited himself as the inspiration for the exhibition. “The CFDA is just making it official. Rocky is a guy to go to when you need a confidence boost,” she said.
Wintour recalled what Andrew Bolton said. “There are very few men who can wear their great-grandmother’s patchwork kilt to the Met gala and own it.”
In accepting the award for fashion icon, Rocky said, “If I forget to thank anybody just make sure I win the trophy next year, so I can give all your props.”
“On a serious note, I just want to say it’s a real honor to be the recipient of this award. Yes, I agree, I am a an icon, but I’m nothing without my peers and a lot of y’all in the room. I want to dedicate this to all the risk takers, all the rule breakers out there. You know who you all are.” He thanked all the magazine publications and the different designers “who embraced me when I was unfamiliar to the world.”
“You know I always knew who I was, but thank you for identifying me as well.” In addition to thanking his team, he thanked Rihanna, who won this award in 2014. “You inspire me,” said A$AP, recalling that he told her he was going to win that award one day too.
“You all stay blessed, and I’m going to stay pretty,” he said.
Benito Skinner and Jennifer Fisher presented the American Accessory Designer of the Year to Ashley Olsen and Mary-Kate Olsen for The Row.
In accepting their award, Ashley Olsen thanked their creative partners, retail partners and buyers who supported their business, their friends and family.
Ava DuVernay presented the Innovation Award Presented by Amazon Fashion to Jerry Lorenzo of Fear of God. She said when Lorenzo was growing up “Jerry was never the biggest or the loudest, but the one who felt everything most deeply.
“Like many American originals, he found his way through persistence and imagination. He noticed a gap in his own closet, a missing space between authenticity and aspiration. And instead of waiting for someone else to do it, he did it himself. From that small spark came Fear of God, a global vision that took the ordinary and made it soar.”
Lorenzo said, “The intention of Fear of God has been to innovate, but to be honest. Honesty is our approach to create effortless yet elegant solutions that transcend time and space, to design pieces that take a backseat to the wearer, allowing the individual to become the best version of who they were called to be. If honesty and authenticity in fashion are considered innovative ways of working, then I humbly and promptly accept this award.”
Addison Rae and Christopher John Rogers presented the Google Shopping American Emerging Designer of the Year to Ashlynn Park for Ashlyn. Rae noted that she’s in good company since designers such as Marc Jacobs, Zac Posen, Cynthia Rowley, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez have won that award.
Park said, “Thanks to the CFDA community for constant support for emerging designers and Google Shopping for sponsoring this award, and my team, my family, my mentors, and especially Joe. You told me once you wanted to take me to the moon. I feel like I’m in the moon right now.”
Naomi Campbell presented the International Designer of the Year Award to Pieter Mulier, creative director of the Maison Azzedine Alaïa. She said that as many people in the audience know, Alaïa was family to her and was her mentor, protector, and papa. She said when Mulier got the job, people wondered whether he could truly honor Alaïa’s exceptional legacy, “while bringing something new.”
“Fortunately, Pieter answered the call not with words, but with work and respect.” She said Mulier had either incredible courage “or didn’t know what he was getting into. And I suspect it was both,” said Campbell.
“What matters most is Pieter didn’t try to replace anything. He honored him,” she said.
In accepting his award, Mulier said, “It’s extremely intimidating to stand here in front of you all, and especially next to you, Naomi. Your kind words have reached me so much, and I think you’re very right. It was a difficult task, but it was a passion, and one we did with the full team with great love. To be honest, I never thought of winning a prize, nor did I think they were important. But I have to say I changed my mind with this one, because it creates a moment in time where one can stand still and reflect and realize that all the hard work that we do is appreciated and celebrated, because fashion in the end without the glamour is hard work. And no one works alone. So this recognition is most of all for my creative team, who are here at the table tonight. I couldn’t do anything without them, and I won’t say your names because tonight there are headhunters in the room.”
Nicole Phelps, director of Vogue Runway, presented the Isabel Toledo Board of Directors Award to Andre Walker, “a Brooklyn kid who grew up in his mother’s beauty salon studying Vogue and W.” When he was in high school, he started putting on runway shows in the early 1980s in church basements and clubs such as Danceteria. “They were more like rock concerts with their screaming crowds” with stars like Andy Warhol and a young Marc Jacobs in the audience. “When he wasn’t making clothes, he was modeling them or writing about them.” Kim Hastreiter would put him in also every issue of Paper Magazine, whether on roller skates with his friends or profiling designers. She said Walker isn’t just a designer, he’s also an artist.
Upon accepting the award, Walker said, “When Bethann [Hardison] shared this news via text from Morocco, I immediately wrote to Kim Hastreiter to ask if it was a scam. I was in a state of disbelief. As far as my career goes silence is golden; gratitude priceless…One thing leads to another. The amount of thanks necessary to grace how this has come to be outweighs all emotion I feel surrounding this unexpected and timely tribute. It’s grounded in the light of Isabel and Ruben Toledo’s practice which makes the honor possible.”
Jennifer Lawrence presented the Media Award in honor of Eugenia Sheppard to her friend Sara Moonves, editor in chief of W. Moonves took on the role when she was 34 years old, the youngest editor in chief of a major magazine, “and she created such a specific and amazing world that is aspirationally intellectual and also chic,” said Lawrence.
Lawrence described Moonves as an “artist, and she chose a role that lets her work shape artists in every field, fashion photographer, culture, storytelling. She doesn’t just curate them. She gets to dominate them. She dresses like Coco Chanel, but has the work ethic of Genghis Khan,” said Lawrence.
Moonves thanked Lawrence and said that she’s been an incredible collaborator “on this amazing portfolio coming up.
“When Steven Kolb called me and told me that the CFDA wanted to honor me with the Eugenia Sheppard award, I was speechless, which anyone who knows me can attest I rarely am.”
“Being an editor of W is my dream job….The best compliment that I often receive about our magazine is that it looks like we are having fun, and we are. Thanks for the hardest working, most creative staff and the long list of contributors that I still pinch myself that I get to work with,” said Moonves.
For the final award of the evening, Mark Ronson and Public School designers Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne presented the American Menswear of the Year Award to Thom Browne.
In accepting his award, Browne said he wanted to thank his team, “because without them, I wouldn’t be here.” He also wanted mostly to thank “the biggest inspiration in my life, the most special person, the most beautiful person, and I think the most important person in fashion. He really champions all of our work at the highest level…[His partner] Andrew Bolton.”
