Menswear Takes Over the CFDAs
The Council of Fashion Designers of America held its annual awards on Monday afternoon, and menswear, and male designers, had a big afternoon: Telfar Clemens, Pyer Moss’s Kerby Jean-Raymond, and Dior’s Kim Jones took home top trophies.
The awards are usually a starry affair—last year, Kanye West presented Rick Owens with the award for Menswear Designer of the Year. The pandemic changed things, starting with a monthslong delay from the usual June date. The show itself was toned down, too. Instead of the standard red carpet and champagne-fueled elbow-rubbing, CFDA chairman Tom Ford revealed the winners in a moody but crisp black and white film. He’s a man who knows film, after all, not to mention his own angles.
But it wasn’t merely about recreating the gloss remotely. As Ford said in the video, the lack of a gala this year allowed the CFDA on “redirecting our efforts towards scholarships and racial diversity.” The winners reflected that change, with an exciting crop who reflected menswear’s growing influence on fashion both globally and in the United States. Telfar Clemens took home Accessory Designer of the Year for his hit tote bag. Last year, that award was taken home by The Row, also a nominee this year—and while 2019 felt to many like a missed opportunity, given that Clemens had singlehanded reinvented the it-bag, the CFDA made the right call in 2020. There was no disputing that Telfar’s bag owned 2020, with its instant sellout drops and major preorder sale arguably the summer’s most major fashion moment. Clemens also had a big year for his ready-to-wear designs, showing a collection at Pitti Uomo in Florence back in January.
Pyer Moss, whose creative director is Kerby Jean-Raymond won menswear designer of the year; just two years ago, it took home the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund prize, a major get for emerging designers. Jean-Raymond has become a significant voice in the industry itself, and just last week he announced a major partnership with Kering called Your Friends In New York to bring young talent from across industries together. (He is also on the CFDA board of directors, one of Ford’s first moves upon joining last year; the designer told GQ shortly afterwards that he thought the appointment “was cute.”) Jean-Raymond’s spring 2020 collection, shown at Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre last September, marked major progress in the brand’s menswear designs, particularly refining its Zoot Suit silhouette.
Lastly, Dior men’s artistic director Kim Jones—who last week added Fendi womenswear to his design duties—took home the award for International Menswear Designer of the Year. His innovations in men’s couture and ability to translate subcultural obsessions for mass audiences have won him rave reviews in the fashion world; over five million people tried to buy his Air Dior sneaker.
Even outside of the awards for menswear designers, it was a male-dominated lineup of winners, with Christopher John Rodgers, the beloved young designer whose gowns merge Ralph Lauren cool with Cinderella fantasy, taking home the award for emerging designer, and Pierpaolo Piccioli scored International Womenswear Designer for his breathtaking work at Valentino. Gabriela Hearst won the award for Womenswear Designer of the Year, beating out The Row, Brandon Maxwell, Marc Jacobs, and Tom Ford. (Ford was also nominated for his menswear.)
As noted on Twitter, only 16% of the winners this year were women. Perhaps the efforts to diversify the awards opened up a difficult new spot—but more likely, it reflects a difference between how the wants and needs of male and female fashion designers differ. The crowning of Hearst, whose work suggests a spiffier version of Phoebe Philo’s Celine, with an impressively luxurious emphasis on sustainability, suggests that perhaps female designers, at the moment, are more interested in communing with the interior life of their intended wearer. It’s men, now, who are making the big splashy gestures. That's especially, fascinatingly true in female-driven spaces like couture, hit handbags, and staging possibly the next big revolution in clothes by shaking the conservative uniform—the suit!—out of its shell. Are men just having more fun? The awards herald the beginning of New York Fashion Week, and the global marathon of runway shows after that. Maybe we’ll get some answers.
Originally Appeared on GQ
