The newest batch of finalists for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund were revealed Wednesday evening at the Proenza Schouler store in SoHo. Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, who won the first CFDA/VFF, did the honors.
The 10 finalists are: Adam Selman, Beckett Fogg and Piotrek Panszczyk of Area, Laura Vassar and Kristopher Brock of Brock Collection, Chloe Gosselin, Ji Oh, Stirling Barrett of Krewe du Optic, Morgan Curtis of Morgan Lane, Maryam and Marjan Malakpour of Newbark, Laura Chandler and Joshua Cooper of Rochambeau and Chris Stamp of Stampd.
The winner stands to receive $400,000 and the two runners-up take home $150,000 each. The winners will be announced Nov. 7 at a gala dinner in New York. In the meantime, the designers are put through a grueling set of challenges before the selection committee, which includes Ken Downing, Mark Holgate, Steven Kolb, Anna Wintour, Diane von Furstenberg and Jenna Lyons. One of the design challenges is underwritten by Intel and a fashion show staged at Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles is underwritten by Kate Spade New York.
“My studio is set up to handle a lot of special projects,” said Selman, who fields a lot of custom work for Rihanna in addition to designing his line. ” So that part doesn’t freak me out as much as the camera crews.” Indeed, there was a crew filming the evening’s proceedings and attendees were asked to sign releases at the door. The past three seasons of the CFDA/VFF competition were filmed, and last year Amazon purchased “The Fashion Fund” from Conde Nast Entertainment and aired the unscripted series. It also sold the finalists collections on Amazon.com. Asked if there are plans to televise the show again, a representative for the CFDA said it was not ready to disclose details.
“Good luck,” said McCollough after the finalists were announced. “You have your work cut out for you.”