This year may have disrupted many things, but the annual prize-giving of the Council of Fashion Designers of America is not one of them. The US fashion industry council aims to highlight and celebrate the best of fashion designers worldwide.
Initially scheduled for June, the event was postponed because of Covid-19 and took place on Monday. Completely reconfigured, the usual star-studded dinner gave way to a video link through which its chairman, designer Tom Ford, announced the winners.
Scooping the two most coveted prizes were Valentino's designer Pierpaolo Piccioli, who picked up International Women's Designer of the Year, and designer Kim Jones, who collected the International Men's Designer of the Year for his work at Dior.
Piccioli has been creative director at Valentino for more than 12 years, first with Maria Grazia Chiuri, and then alone, when Chiuri decamped to take her role as head of womenswear at Christian Dior. So it is fair to say that Piccioli has a good understanding of what the brand is all about.
He has put his stamp on the label, bringing a tougher edge to its romantic DNA, and adding a fresh modernity to its sumptuous tailoring.
Jones, meanwhile, is rightly recognised for his work for Dior, including the autumn / winter 2020 collection, for which the British designer incorporated haute couture elements into the men's wardrobe. Recently, Jones was named as the new creative designer at Fendi, taking over the role that Karl Lagerfeld held for more than 50 years.
Click through the gallery above to see the winning work from both designers.
