Sara Moonves with Jennifer Lawrence, Andre Walker and A$AP Rocky at the 2025 CFDA Awards
Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Getty Images
Industry stalwarts and emerging talents came together on Monday for American fashion’s second-biggest night of the year — after the Met Gala, that is. At the 2025 Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards, the trade organization’s annual fundraising gala and awards ceremony, top awards went to Ralph Lauren, Thom Browne, and Andre Walker, among others. This year, Rihanna — who memorably debuted her naked dress at the event in 2014 — was back to support her guy A$AP Rocky, who was honored with the same Fashion Icon award she picked up back then. “You won this so long ago, remember what I told you?” said A$AP Rocky from the podium as he accepted his award, which he dedicated to Harlem and New York City. “I said, ‘You inspire me — I’m going to win that shit one day.’ And look, we did it, baby.”
Laura Harrier with designer Rachel Scott
Photo: Jamie McCarthy/WireImage
The CFDA Awards can often feel repetitive; many of the same designers win the same awards, year after year. But this year’s event came at a particularly challenging time for American designers, who are struggling with tariffs and a slowdown in the luxury market. “This administration, to begin with, has made things very challenging,” said Rachel Scott, the new creative director of Proenza Schouler, before the ceremony. The Jamaican designer won the CFDA award for womenswear last year for her label, Diotima. “My everyday is thinking about the ICE raids and thinking about our climate — Jamaica was really impacted last week.”
“It just gets harder and harder … the amount of things that one has to do to make a collection great and run a company,” said Zoe Latta, one half of Eckhaus Latta, on the red carpet. “The more you want, the harder it is,” added Mike Eckhaus.
Onstage at the American Natural History Museum, however, no one talked about politics, tariffs, or the mayoral election. Jennifer Lawrence showed up for her friend, W’s editor-in-chief, Sara Moonves, who won the Media Award, and Naomi Campbell gave Alaia’s Pieter Mulier the International Award. Browne, who won the menswear designer of the year, presented courtier and designer Ralph Rucci with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Designer Colleen Allen with Lily Allen
Photo: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
Read on for more highlights from the 2025 CFDA Awards.
Bezoses on the Brain
Amazon Fashion has sponsored the CFDA Awards since 2022, but this year the corporate tie-in felt even more present during the ceremony. Host Teyana Taylor opened the ceremony with some quips about the luxury of two-day shipping, and later, CFDA CEO Steven Kolb thanked an absent Lauren Sanchez Bezos for donating $6.25 million to the organization to start a new sustainable-fashion initiative that will include scholarships and awards.
Teyana Taylor wearing Thom Browne
Photo: Lexie Moreland/WWD via Getty Images
The Olsens Emerged
We rarely see Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen in public, much less hear them speak. But last night, they picked up their fourth award for accessories designers of the year. Ashley, with her hair in an Olsen tuck, gave a perfunctory speech on behalf of the sisters, who matched in long tuxedo coats with minimal jewelry (a brooch on Ashley, a chain necklace on Mary-Kate).
The Year of Ralph Lauren
The king of American fashion is no stranger to the CFDA Awards, having won numerous awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award, since the first ceremony in 1981. In 2018, much of the show was dedicated to celebrating his 50th anniversary in business. But this time, Lauren won for womenswear, a smaller but faster-growing part of his empire, which is growing again after years of turnaround efforts. The designer, now 86 years old, thanked the audience for their standing ovation from his table, where he stood and waved but did not make a speech.
Ashlynn Park won the Emerging Designer Award
The designer’s namesake label, Ashlyn, is only five years old but already one of our favorites on the New York Fashion Week calendar each season — noteworthy in an industry where female designers rarely get the top jobs and recognition.
Designer Ashlynn Park
Photo: Lexie Moreland/WWD via Getty Images
Amber Valletta Celebrated Donatella Versace by Wearing that Famous Green Dress
Before Jennifer Lopez broke the internet by wearing the green nearly naked green jungle-print Versace dress in 2000, model Amber Valletta wore it first on the runway in the early years of Donatella Versace’s takeover of her late brother’s label. The model wore it again to honor Donatella in her first year of retirement from Versace, as the designer picked up the Positive Change Award for her philanthropic work.
Amber Valletta with Donatella Versace
Photo: Lexie Moreland/WWD via Getty Images
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