The CFDA

     The CFDA, or Council of Fashion Designers of America, is a non-profit trade organization. The Council has grown a ton since its establishment in 1963, pushing for progression in the fashion industry in America. The goals of the CFDA are along the lines of furthering fashion as an American culture, advancing standards and ethics in the industry, and promoting and improving public understanding of fashion arts.

[CFDA Current President Diane von Furstenberg with Vogue Editor Anna Wintour]

     The Council is also very involved with up and coming designers who haven’t quite been discovered yet. They have several partnerships with other fashion industry leaders to provide scholarships to budding designers.

A look at a few of the programs: 

-CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund: Not only does this award provide funding to the chosen recipients, but business mentoring from a team of industry professionals as well. This award is given annually to three lucky recipients.

Award Amount: $300,000 for first place, and $100,000 for 2^nd and 3^rd.

-CFDA Scholarship Program: This highly competitive program selects fashion students who are in their junior year of a 4-year program to receive either a $10,000 or $5,000 award. The students are chosen from only the top design schools in the country.

-CFDA {Fashion Incubator}: This program is the most recent edition, and is based on granting funding to up and coming designers based in America. The CFDA selects 10 designers and provides them with a creative professional environment with low cost design studio space, business mentoring, networking opportunities, and educational seminars. For any designer on the verge of breaking through, this program sounds almost too good to be true!

     There is of course a very selective process for choosing candidates for all of these programs. The CFDA requires extremely detailed information and proof that you are something worth investing in, also that you are worthy of dawning the CFDA approval stamp.

     Becoming a member of the CFDA is by invite only. This is where networking is crucial. The CFDA respects experience and proof of the hard work you have put in on your own. They look for people who will represent the association and the purpose it stands for.

     These criteria and partnerships begin to show just how much power the CFDA has over the fashion industry. They have control over much of popular opinion when it comes to whom the next “big name” in fashion is. There are pros and cons to this situation, but nonetheless it is wonderful that there is such an association with so many opportunities for designers to excel.

For more information on the CFDA, visit their website at www.cfda.com