Fashion's relationship with sports has been an ongoing one, especially in New York, but even more so over the last few season's in the run up to the Olympics. While that's true, that didn't make the announcement that the CFDA have decided to team up with the New York Met any easier to understand.
The partnership aims to celebrate their respective 50th anniversaries and yesterday the first images of the pieces were released. Not all of the members were involved in the project. According to The Cut, Yigal Azrouël, Shipley&Halmos, Loomstate and Billy Reid are the designers behind the Mets-themed clothing. All of the pieces are now available on Edition01.com with the proceeds benefiting both organisations.
The CFDA Awards are less than a week away and now the confirmations of those involved are coming in thick and fast. While we already know who some of the awards are going to - Johnny Depp is receiving the style icon award and the media award is going to Garance Dore and Scott Schuman - this years presenters have remained under wraps until now.
According to WWD, Jessica Chastain will present the women's wear award to Marc Jacobs, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen for The Row or Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez for Proenza Schouler. The menswear award will be presented to either Billy Reid, Simon Spurr or Patrik Ervell by Matt Bomer and Jessica Paré will present for accessories.
On a different note, who else has a feeling that Kim Kardashian will attend this year's event to make a point after Met Gala-gate?
Last month rumours started circulating that CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winner Jospeph Altuzarra is working on a capsule collection with J. Crew along with runners up Pamela Love and Creatures of the Wind. The news didn't come as surprise. Back in 2010, the high street retailer announced that they would work with the award recipients of that that year - who were Prabal Gurung, Eddie Borgo and Billy Reid - on capsule collections and today Altuzarra confirmed that the reports are true.
'So we worked on a collaboration which I think will be out in a few weeks,' he told Fashionista. 'It was a really interesting project because it was like a conflation of their language — or of their world — [and] of our world and putting it together.” As designer-high-street partnerships go, this is one I'm definitely looking forward to get my hands on. Are you?
The CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund prize is a big one but just to make it a bit more interesting this year, they've decided to treat the finalists to a bonus trip to Paris.
According to The Cut, Tommy Hilfiger is sponsoring the program, which enables these designers to show their collections in Paris to ensure that their collections are seen by those press and buyers who couldn't make it to New York Fashion Week. The lucky ten designers are Prabal Gurung, Sophie Theallet, Simon Spurr, Billy Reid, Eddie Borgo, Monique Péan, Ohne Titel, George Esquivel, Gregory Parkinson, and Pamela Love.
GQ & Levi's have just revealed the list of nominees in the running for the Best New Designer in America Award. Hoping to win a limited-edition menswear capsule collection with Levi's that will be sold exclusively at Bloomingdales' nationwide are the likes of Richard Chai, Billy Reid, Eunice Lee of Unis, Caulfield Preparatory's Vincent Flumiani, J.Crew's Frank Muytjens, and Burkman Bros' Ben and Doug Burkman.
The designers will have to impress the judging panel consisting of editors, retailers and Levi's executives with their Fall '09 collections before the winner will be announced. As the first-ever female to be nominated for the award, Ms Lee is excited at the thought of designing for an institution such as Levi's. She told Style.com that she's "had Levi's on for all of my life," and has a penchant for the vintage men's styles. Having been inspired by climbers and sports from the '60s, she described her collection by saying: "...it was about your cotton waxed jacket and heavier twills and things like that...it's sportswear...in the original sense." Look out for the announcement of the winner at an event during New York Fashion Week next month. Let the games begin.
