Feats of American fashion

Impact: 50 Years Of The Council Of Designers Of America

Published by Abrams

304 Pages

Available at National Book Store and Power Books

A  number of Manila’s fashion die-hards silently stored up their vacation leaves and booked their tickets to the US upon hearing that Target, purveyor of mass fashion and detergent (which, admittedly, is a perfect pairing), was teaming up with luxury department store Neiman Marcus (purveyor of $3,000 garments that read: “dry clean only”) for a holiday collection. What made the deal even sweeter was the fact that the two retail bigwigs have 24 designers from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) on board for the collection, such as current CFDA president Diane von Furstenberg, Oscar de la Renta (himself a former CFDA president), Marc Jacobs, Tory Burch, Carolina Herrera, Proenza Schouler, Jason Wu, Derek Lam, Marchesa, Alice + Olivia, Prabal Gurung, Rag & Bone, Band of Outsiders, Altuzarra, Brian Atwood, Judith Leiber and Rodarte, to name a few.

The exhibit was held at The Museum at FIT in New York, curated by Patricia Mears, who also contributed an essay to the book.

The collaboration is the perfect embodiment of von Furstenberg’s outlook on American fashion: “I always say to my designers, ‘Commercial is not a dirty word. Commercial means success.’ And therefore, American fashion is about success.” This statement concluded her speech at the opening of the “Impact: 50 Years of the CFDA” exhibit at The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, which wrapped up last April. “In honor of that creativity and in celebration of the CFDA’s 50th anniversary, we are proud to present an exhibit that represents the tremendous work of our members for the last five decades,” said von Furstenberg. Accompanying the exhibit is the coffee table book of the same name, with a preface by von Furstenberg, a foreword by New York Times critic and CFDA-awardee for fashion journalism Cathy Horyn, as well as a seminal essay by deputy director of The Museum at FIT and curator of “Impact” Patricia Mears entitled “The Council of Fashion Designers of America: A History.”

In it, Mears chronicles the CFDA’s every milestone beginning in the year 1962, a time when American designers were just beginning to establish an aesthetic that was unique to Parisian fashion. Interestingly the CFDA was founded not by a designer, but by one of New York’s top publicists: Eleanor Lambert. Tracing the organization’s rich history includes other interesting side stories, such as the original “International Best-Dressed List” (Lambert’s idea, which she later entrusted to Vanity Fair during the last months of her life), the controversial beginnings of the CFDA awards, former CFDA president Stan Herman’s organization of New York Fashion Week in a single, centralized location (first in Bryant Park then later, in Lincoln Center complex), along with the establishment of the CFDA Scholarship Program and most recently, “Fashion’s Night Out.”

Though the CFDA has had over 600 designers throughout its 50-year history, only 100 designers were selected, based on who among them has made the most impact on American fashion, for both the book and the exhibit. It should be worth noting then that among the designers chosen are Filipino designers Josie Natori, Monique Lhullier and Rafe Totengco. Among the usual suspects — of course, DVF (and her ex-husband Egon von Furstenberg — who knew he designed?!), Bill Blass, Carolina Herrera, Ralph Lauren, Halston — are surprising entries, like celebrities P. Diddy for Sean Jean (we’re willing to bet Kanye West is super pissed about this) and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen for The Row.

“‘Impact’ was the one word that came to mind immediately — it is so strong and defining of our individual and collective influence,” current CFDA president Diane von Furstenberg said on coming up with the title of the book and exhibit.ZIMBIO.COM

Most of the designers opted to write about their own impact on American fashion themselves (Betsey Johnson, to nobody’s surprise, wrote a poem that began with “I think, I brought, I bring… ‘FUN!’”). However, a few selections were written by Anna Wintour (dela Renta and Tom Ford), André Leon Talley (Norma Kamali), and Bridget Foley (Marc Jacobs).

In the book’s acknowledgments, CFDA CEO Steven Kolb writes, “While not our first book, this may be our most important book yet, as it is the ultimate reference on the CFDA.” After all, knowing a little bit more about the designers you patronize never hurts, in the same way reading up on an artist’s personal history helps you appreciate their body of work more. Also, it would do us some good to take a few pointers on how we can strengthen our local fashion industry by creating an environment where designers can not only work alongside each other, but also learn from each other as well through mentorship, and maybe one day, scholarship programs. Just as long as we don’t call it the CFDP. That would be too blatant of us.