The CFDA Fashion Awards unveil 'most diverse' group of winners in 39-year history
The Council of Fashion Designers of America unveiled winners of the group's annual fashion awards on Monday, hailing the 2020 CFDA Fashion Awards recipients as the most diverse in the awards' 39-year history.
Black designers Kerby Jean-Raymond for Pyer Moss (American menswear designer of the year), Telfar Clemens for Telfar (American accessories designer) and Christopher John Rogers (American emerging designer) were three of the six winners, alongside Gabriela Hearst (American womenswear designer), this year's only female winner and the first woman to win this category since 2015.
Other winners include Pierpaolo Piccioli for Valentino (international women’s designer) and Kim Jones for Dior (international men’s designer).
The results came two months after the CFDA faced backlash for its 30 nominees, the majority of which were white.
The virtual announcement honoring the best in fashion creativity, led by CFDA Chairman Tom Ford, replaced the group's annual gala, originally planned for June 8 but canceled by the pandemic.
"Not having a gala allows us to focus on supporting designers during the global pandemic and redirecting our efforts toward scholarships and bringing racial equity to fashion," Ford said.
When the nominees were announced in July, @kappabashibashi wrote in the comments of the post, "If there even is a person of color in your nomination selections, you have one token person of color for each category. You need to wake up and do better."
User ketmydrift added, "There are sooo many good BIPOC and POC designers that y’all willfully ignore 🙄. Do better. This is lazy and boring. As a fashion enthusiast – this is BORING."
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In a post to his own Instagram account, Indian-American designer Naeem Khan spoke up about the nominations while sharing a photo of the American womenswear designer of the year nominees, which included Ashley Olsen and Mary-Kate Olsen for The Row, Brandon Maxwell, Hearst, Marc Jacobs and Ford.
"What is wrong in this picture. Its the same nominees every year ... Perhaps it’s time to change. I guess u have to be white or the chairman of the CFDA to get nominated. Conflict of interest and very incestuous," he wrote.
Contributing: Sara Moniuszko
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: CFDA Fashion Awards hail 'most diverse' winners in 39-year history
