When Anna and Diane call, everyone answers.
That's why Tuesday night's CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund awards ceremony in New York City was packed to the gills with fashion folks and celebs including Emma Stone, Christina Ricci, Dakota Fanning and Ashley Greene, all there to support the joint project between Anna Wintour's Vogue and the Diane Von Furstenberg-led Council of Fashion Designers of America.
The ceremony also brought together the ten finalists competing for this year's CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, a design prize that which includes $300,000 and a yearlong mentorship with an industry veteran. This year the top prize went to Greg Chait of The Elder Statesman, with Tabitha Simmons and Jennifer Meyer Maguire of Jennifer Meyer claiming the runners-up spots and $100,000 each. The other seven nominees were Jennifer Fisher; Giulietta; Greg Armas of Assembly New York; Suno; Illesteva; Andrea Lieberman of A.L.C.; and Wes Gordon.
If those names don't sound familiar, they soon will: past CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winners include Joseph Altuzarra, Alexander Wang, Proenza Schouler and Doo.Ri.
Of course the keynote speech, delivered by Burberry chief creative officer Christopher Bailey, was littered with even more famous names. "When I was at the Royal College of Art I met this incredible person: Donna Karan," Bailey told the crowd. "She completely seduced me with the way she sees the world. She stripped naked within about three minutes of meeting, and tried on all my things." He also mentioned meeting Tom Ford, who "sat there with his shirt open to his navel" but kept his pants on.
The same went for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund guests -- even with jokester Seth Meyers in the crowd, no one stripped down to their boxers and things stayed calm. Chait accepted his prize from Vogue covergirl Emma Stone, then the crowd did what any good fashion crowd does: they had cocktails.
Check out the "red" carpet and tell us who was best-dressed of the night!
