CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund

>> As part of a new, three-year partnership between the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund and Tiffany & Co. to support emerging jewelry designers, Monique Pean and Eddie Borgo were awarded grants — Pean received $150,000 and Borgo received $100,000. All nine jewelry designers who have been named CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalists since the fund's inception in 2004 were eligible to apply for the grant; each was required to submit statements on their brand’s creative vision, their current collection, and their brand's financial information — including intended use for the grant.

>> The CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund judging committee — which this year includes Jack McCollough, Lazaro Hernandez, Vogue's Mark Holgate, Jeffrey Kalinsky of Jeffrey and Nordstrom, CFDA executive director Steven Kolb, Reed Krakoff, Andrew Rosen, Diane von Furstenberg, Jenna Lyons, and Anna Wintour — have determined the 2011 finalists. They are:

AA, Antonio Azzuolo
Altuzarra, Joseph Altuzarra
Carlos Campos, Carlos Campos
Creatures of the Wind, Shane Gabier and Christopher Peters
Cushnie Et Ochs, Michelle Ochs and Carly Cushnie
Finn Jewelry, Soraya Silchenstedt
Fenton/Fallon, Dana Lorenz
Ohne Titel, Alexa Adams and Flora Gill
Pamela Love
Suno, Max Osterweis and Erin Beatty

Joseph Altuzarra and Pamela Love are repeat finalists from last year, and Ohne Titel was a finalist in 2009. The winner and two runners-up will be announced Nov. 14.

>> Tiffany & Co. has made a $1 million gift to the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund: The resultant three-year partnership includes a one-time, $250,000 business development grant for one of the nine jewelry designers who has been a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist since the competition's 2004 launch. These designers include Eddie Borgo, Pamela Love, House of Waris's Waris Ahluwalia, Monique Pean, Irene Neuwirth, Philip Crangi, Subversive Jewelry's Justin Giunta, Anthony Nak's Nak Armstrong and Anthony Camargo (who shuttered their line last year), and Dean Harris. Each designer has received an application for the grant, and a winner will be named this Summer. “As a leader in the jewelry industry, it is important to us that the next generation of talented jewelry designers is able to succeed in the face of the many business challenges they face,” said Tiffany chairman and CEO Michael J. Kowalski. “Partnering with the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, this grant is intended to continue to develop jewelry as an important field of design.” [WWD]

• Vogue's Virginia Smith turned down the Barneys fashion director position last week, and now the other front-runner, Lane Crawford fashion director Sarah Rutson, has too. “I have no intention or plans to leave Lane Crawford,” Rutson said over the weekend [WWD]
• Tomorrow's British Fashion Awards will honor Alexander McQueen posthumously for Outstanding Achievement; McQueen's frequent collaborator Nick Knight made a short film of the designer's archives for the occasion, scored by Bjork: “It is being styled by Edward Enninful and will feature black models only” [Style File]
• The first image of Dolce & Gabbana's Spring 2011 campaign, which features Izabel Goulart, Alessandra Ambrosio, Maryna Linchuk, and Isabeli Fontana captured by Steven Klein, has leaked (pictured) [TFS]

• Giorgio Armani and Lady Gaga, who have a multimillion dollar partnership, finally met for the first time last night; Anna Dello Russo also met Gaga and brought her a doll [Styleite]
• See the Ann Taylor-inspired looks the 2010 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalists created as part of this year's competition [Fashionista]
• Hairstylist Didier Malige on Terry Richardson's childhood: "Now I see Terry as an adult, and at the time I knew him as three or four years old. His upbringing was totally liberal compared to a French kid of his age. They had a Fiat 500, which is a tiny little car, and he always had to share it with a huge poodle, like a royal poodle. And he always had to sit in the back with the poodle." [Into The Gloss]
• Juicy Couture co-founders Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor, who favor vintage pieces, furry vests, black leather pants, and vertiginous heels, plan to launch a new label next year, and they're dropping hints: “It will reflect the way we dress now. We have outgrown our track suits and grown up” [WWD]
• Sasha Pivovarova, who likes to make dolls, opens up her Brooklyn loft for T's cameras [T]
• Watch the music video for a young Jean Paul Gaultier's 1988 single, "How To Do That," featuring Naomi Campbell [Jezebel]
• 23-year-old Central St Martins graduate Thomas Tait only does private orders so far, but he's already got fans in Giles Deacon, Daphne Guinness, Stephen Jones, and Manolo Blahnik [T]
• Intermission Magazine's website just launched, featuring interviews with the likes of Gaia Repossi and Hanne-Gaby Odiele [Intermission]

>> The CFDA has had a busy last couple of nights. The 2010 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalists, which include Eddie Borgo, Pamela Love, Joseph Altuzarra, and Christian Cota, gathered at Anna Wintour's house on Wednesday night with their model muses for the design challenge cocktail party, which this year required a look for a working woman, inspired by Ann Taylor. Photos of the event can be seen here, and a video of the the finalists presenting to this year's judges can be seen here.

And last night, designers like Francisco Costa — with Bianca Jagger on his arm, Subversive Jewelry's Justin Giunta, Peter Som, and Yigal Azrouel braved the torrential rain to toast the CFDA and Assouline's latest tome, American Fashion Designers at Home. CFDA president Diane von Furstenberg didn't make it — she's been temporarily bedridden with a cold — but plans are already in place for the next CFDA and Assouline collaboration: American Fashion: Designers on the Go, due out in Spring 2011, which will encompass travel guide tips, suggestions, and personal photos of favorite vacation places from designers.