The fall 2025 collections may have come to a close last night in Paris, but the fashion games are only just getting started. The season kicked off with Christopher John Rogers’s return to the runway at New York Fashion Week, with other highlights including Rachel Scott’s standout presentation for Diotima and the GQ and Bode extravaganza by Emily Adams Bode Aujla in New Orleans ahead of the Super Bowl. The three designers, all now key to the fabric of American fashion, were once finalists for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund. Could you be up next?
As of this morning at 9am EST, applications for the 2025 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund will be officially open on CFDA.com. They will close at 11:59pm EST on Friday, March 21, 2025. A lineup of 10 finalists will be selected by the Fund’s Selection Committee, to be unveiled in June.
Designers eligible to apply must have been in business for a minimum of two years. Their primary business must be based in the United States, should have no more than 30 full-time employees, and not exceed a total revenue of 10 million dollars per year. The selection committee includes Anna Wintour, Chief Content Officer, Condé Nast, and Global Editorial Director, Vogue, CFDA CEO Steven Kolb, and CFDA Chairman Thom Browne in addition to Vogue’s Mark Holgate, Vogue Runway Director Nicole Phelps, Instagram’s Eva Chen, Rickie De Sole of Nordstrom, model Paloma Elsesser, Brother Vellies designer and Fifteen Percent Pledge founder Aurora James, and Saks Fifth Avenue’s Roopal Patel.
Joining the panel of jurors for the first time this year will be Gap Inc. Executive Vice President and Creative Director Zac Posen, with the company becoming an official supporter of the Fund after awarding a special anniversary mentorship award last year to finalist Grace Ling. The winners of last year’s 20th edition of the Fund were Dynasty and Soull Ogun, the twin sisters behind the jewelry and lifestyle brand L’Enchanteur, and runners up Spencer Phipps of menswear label Phipps and Wiederhoeft’s Jackson Wiederhoeft, whose dramatic womenswear and bridal collections are a consistent highlight of the NYFW circuit.
Tommy Hilfiger, both the designer and his eponymous label, will return to support the Fund’s design challenge, with Nordstrom’s “Secure the Space Challenge” and its corresponding event also slated to return.
