The CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards took place at the Skylight SoHo in NYC last evening. Joseph Altuzarra took home the night's top honors, winning $300,000 toward growing his brand. Pamela Love and the designers of Creatures of the Wind were runners-up, each earning $100,000. Fashion insiders and celebrities, including Olivia Wilde, Amanda Seyfried, and Zoe Kravitz, came dressed to impress to show their support! On Allison: Topshop blouse.
![2011 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards - Altuzarra [Pictures]](http://media4.onsugar.com/files/2011/11/46/2/166/1668379/094cfa9b0958ce52_132841710_10.xlarge/i/2011-CFDAVogue-Fashion-Fund-Awards---Altuzarra-Pictures.jpg "2011 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards - Altuzarra [Pictures]")
>> Last night at Skylight studios in New York, the 2011 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winners were announced. Joseph Altuzarra, a favorite the past two years running, took home this year's prize — $300,000 and a year-long mentorship. But the impact of the award lasts much longer than a year, CFDA president Diane von Furstenberg explained: "Once you are in the Fashion Fund, we will protect you and continue to provide you with opportunities.” Pamela Love and Creature of the Wind's Shane Gabier and Christopher Peters were named runners-up, collecting $100,000 each.
Calvin Klein gave this year's keynote speech, focusing on his own days as a young designer. “I started out with less money than probably all of you nominees tonight,” he told the crowd. Of coming up in the '60s and ’70s, he noted: “I dealt with truck men, unions, and gangsters. I got a call from the Gambinos one day, telling me, ‘We are your truck men.’”
Altuzarra's friend and the 2008 Fashion Fund winner, Alexander Wang, told him to "just zone out" during Klein's speech, and just before Rooney Mara announced Altuzarra as winner, von Furstenberg went over to the designer's table, pinched his cheek, and asked him something in French. “She asked me if I went to pee,” Altuzarra told The New York Times. When the announcement finally came, Altuzarra told the audience, “I’m so grateful and humbled.” Love, while accepting her award, announced: “I didn’t prepare anything because I didn’t expect this — and I’m shaking!” before running backstage to hug her fiancé, Matthew Nelson. And Gabier said to the crowd, “You’ve made us really happy and we hope to make you really proud.”
![CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund 2011 Nominee Studio Tours [Video]](http://media4.onsugar.com/files/2012/08/32/1/166/1668379/80089aca1c28bbd1_Screen-shot-2012-08-06-at-8.34.51-PM.xlarge/i/CFDAVogue-Fashion-Fund-2011-Nominee-Studio-Tours-Video.jpg "CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund 2011 Nominee Studio Tours [Video]")
>> In the newest video that follows the ten 2011 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalists through competition, studio tours are given to the judges, cameos are made during Fashion's Night Out, and tense moments are shown backstage during the recent Spring 2012 shows. [Vogue.com]
![2011 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Fashion Show [Pictures]](http://media1.onsugar.com/files/2011/10/42/5/166/1668379/a546b33f1a8d5a3b_JosephAlt_John_129785155_Max.xlarge/i/2011-CFDAVogue-Fashion-Fund-Fashion-Show-Pictures.jpg "2011 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Fashion Show [Pictures]")
>> The final challenge of this year's CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund competition — a fashion show by all 10 finalists at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles — took place last Thursday. “You’re never really a spectator at your own show, so it’s an amazing experience," said second-time finalist Joseph Altuzarra. "I wasn’t so much looking at the girls as at people’s reactions in the audience.”
Ryan Murphy, Bee Shaffer's current boss — both were in attendance — revealed another project Altuzarra has on his plate: designing some costumes for Murphy’s new movie based on Larry Kramer’s play, The Normal Heart.
![CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund 2011 Nominee Presentation [Video]](http://media3.onsugar.com/files/2012/08/32/1/166/1668379/b224aae0cfa6aaaf_Screen-shot-2012-08-06-at-8.42.57-PM.xlarge/i/CFDAVogue-Fashion-Fund-2011-Nominee-Presentation-Video.jpg "CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund 2011 Nominee Presentation [Video]")
>> In the vein of Seamless, Vogue is documenting this year's CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund competition amongst the 10 nominees: a.a., Altuzarra, Carlos Campos, Creatures of the Wind, Cushnie et Ochs, Finn Jewelry, Fenton/Fallon, Ohne Titel, Pamela Love, and Suno. The most recent video, below, follows each designer as they present before a judge panel that includes Anna Wintour, Jenna Lyons, Reed Krakoff, Proenza Schouler, and Andrew Rosen. [Vogue.com]
>> Just before last season, CFDA president Diane von Furstenberg encouraged designers to forego hiring models under 16; however, after her show last season, von Furstenberg discovered that she had hired 15-year-old Hailey Clauson to walk, and subsequently issued an apology.
This season, von Furstenberg and the CFDA are taking preventative measures further, recommending that models produce a valid ID on the show day, ensuring that they are a minimum of 16 years old. “The casting agents for the Diane von Furstenberg show will be doing this and we encourage others to do the same,” the letter which von Furstenberg and CFDA CEO Steven Kolb sent out yesterday, stated. It also noted that all top model agencies had pledged not to send models under 16 for shows.
Von Furstenberg is not the only major New York designer who has had issues with model-age confusion. Michael Kors tells Lauren Hutton in the new issue of Interview: "I still think it’s weird when models come in on go-sees. I don’t understand how anyone can think that a model is a mannequin. I like to think of them as just women ... When they come in, I’m always like, 'Where are you from? Tell me about your life.' That’s the first thing I say. We were laughing, though, because two seasons ago, I said, 'You know what? These girls we’re seeing are too young. They are children.' It’s silly ... I said two years ago, 'No models under 16.' Well, of course, right after I said that, we started seeing all of these girls from Eastern Europe, and every girl who’d walk in, you’d say, 'Hi. What’s your name?' And she’d be like, 'I’m Svetlana.' I’m like, 'Svetlana, where are you from?' 'Ukraine.' 'Svetlana, how old are you?' '16.' Next girl walks in — she’s from Eastern Europe and 16. Next one? Eastern European and 16. I was like, 'Was there a bus?' But I still think it’s a tricky thing because no matter how beautiful you might be at 15 or 16, the simple truth is that you haven’t lived enough to really know how to project anything in a photograph. It’s like a kind of blank beauty."
>> 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.
![CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund 2011 Nominee Presentation [Video]](http://media2.onsugar.com/files/2012/08/32/1/166/1668379/b224aae0cfa6aaaf_Screen-shot-2012-08-06-at-8.42.57-PM.xxlarge/i/CFDAVogue-Fashion-Fund-2011-Nominee-Presentation-Video.jpg "CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund 2011 Nominee Presentation [Video]")
![CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund 2011 Nominee Studio Tours [Video]](http://media1.onsugar.com/files/2012/08/32/1/166/1668379/80089aca1c28bbd1_Screen-shot-2012-08-06-at-8.34.51-PM.xxlarge/i/CFDAVogue-Fashion-Fund-2011-Nominee-Studio-Tours-Video.jpg "CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund 2011 Nominee Studio Tours [Video]")
