If there is one thing that fashion has learned over this pandemic year, it’s that business as usual doesn’t work in times of extreme struggle. With that in mind, the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund has rethought its structure; instead of presenting one top prize and two awards to runners-up as it has in the past, the fund is offering grants to 10 American brands. The designers receiving the grants and a year of mentorship from industry leaders are: Batsheva Hay of Batsheva; Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta of Eckhaus Latta; Anifa Mvuemba of Hanifa; Rebecca Henry and Akua Shabaka of House of Aama; Kenneth Nicholson; Jameel Mohammed of Khiry; LaQuan Smith; Abrima Erwiah of Studio 189; Edvin Thompson of Theophilio; and Willy Chavarria. “After an...

Fashion in 2020 has taken a turn. We traded in heels for slippers and dressed up to go nowhere. Designers reimagined the spring-summer 2021 season into digital presentations, masked events, staged runways, or opted out of showing altogether. Those that did were creative, but the successful collections were the ones empathetic to both the devastating and joyful events that occurred in quarantine. "I wanted to focus on the essence of things," creative director Anthony Vaccarello said in the press release for Saint Laurent's Summer21 collection, which premiered today. "I think it’s a sign of the times, but I didn’t want anything bleak or heavy." In a stunning video comprised of 66 looks, Vaccarello traded in the twinkling stage of the Eiffel Tower for the desert of North...

Raf Simons and Miuccia Prada’s first joint menswear collection has finally been revealed. Nearing a year since the Belgian designer was first announced as Prada’s co-creative director, the pair today debuted their Fall/Winter 2021 collection with a short film, followed by another post-show Q&A, live from the house’s Milan headquarters. Entitled “Possible Feelings”, the live-streamed show featured furry textured walls and carpets which were accompanied by a plethora of dynamic models sporting mod-esque slim-fit suits, striking haircuts and an abundance of Raf Simons-inspired looks. If the pair’s first joint womenswear collection was said to demonstrate a fine balance between classic Prada and distinctive Raf, this first menswear offering is almost certainly more Raf-orientated. The epochal Prada logo that adorned much of last season’s women’s collection has been portrayed in the form of...

There will be no shortage of time puns heralding today’s preview of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute’s new exhibition “About Time: Fashion and Duration”. So here’s one more: It’s about time this exhibit opened. Postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic from its original May 4 date, “About Time” will finally swing open its doors to the public on October 29, nearly half a year later. As such, it has had one of the longest gestation periods of any Costume Institute exhibition—ironic for a show whose very subject is time and timeliness. That irony is not lost on Andrew Bolton, the museum’s Wendy Yu Curator in Charge of the Costume Institute: nor is the paradox of opening a fashion exhibition about time in...

Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pietro Beccari, Christian Dior’s creative director of the women’s collection and CEO, respectively, hosted a video conference today to announce the Paris house’s cruise plans. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the postponement of Dior’s original show date of May 27. With France and Italy now more than a month into their reopenings, the company is moving forward with plans for a new date of July 22. A live show with no audience will be staged at the Piazza del Duomo in Lecce, a historic city in Italy’s Puglia region. Beccari gave three reasons for the show. “The first one for Maria Grazia and I, but I think we are not the only ones: luxury is emotions, and when it comes...