“Creativity Is a Lifelong Pursuit”—Isha Ambani, Zac Posen, Anna Wintour, and Chloe Malle Toast the 2025 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Winners
Last night, Michael Kors, Vera Wang, Tory Burch, Prabal Gurung, and a host of other American fashion leaders descended on the Crane Club in New York to celebrate the next generation of designers. The night was the pinnacle of the 2025 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, where this year’s winners were announced.
“This experience has been so gratifying,” said Zac Posen, a first-time judge, who made the evening’s opening remarks. “Meeting these incredible, incredible talents has blown me away. Each one of you brought such a unique vision and a passion, and I was just totally floored, and it was very hard today to choose a winner.”
Still, a winner was selected: Ashlynn Park of Ashlyn is the winner of the 21st edition of the Fund. She will receive a $300,000 grant in addition to a mentorship from an industry leader to help develop her brand further. “It’s the biggest honor for a designer, I’m so excited,” said Park, who also won the Emerging Designer of the Year honor last week at the 2025 CFDA Fashion Awards. The runners-up this year are Stephanie Suberville of Heirlome and Julian Louie of Aubero, who will each take home $100,000. “Be prepared for a long road, enjoy it,” said Posen to all the finalists. “Creativity is a lifelong pursuit, and as artists and creators, we have that ability to create for a long time. So be patient, enjoy.”
The winners were announced by model Alex Consani after a buzzy cocktail hour and a lavish dinner. Among those attending were Adrien Brody and Georgina Chapman, Nina Dobrev, 2024 Fund winners Dynasty and Soull Ogun of L’Enchanteur, 2019 Fund winner Christopher John Rogers, designers Hillary Taymour, Mike Eckhaus, Jonathan Cohen, Tanner Richie and Fletcher Kasell, and many more.
“I love the idea of supporting young talent and American designers,” said Isha Ambani wearing an ensemble by 2024 Fund runner-up Jackson Wiederhoeft. “I love being able to support diverse voices, which is really important to me,” she continued. “The Fashion Fund does such an incredible job of providing that platform, so it was an incredible opportunity to support the cause.” Ambani, who spearheads Reliance Retail, the largest retailer in India, explained that the impetus behind her participation was to continue to nurture emerging talent, as she does with Lakme Fashion Week x FDCI in India and this year with Fashion Trust Arabia, in which India is the Guest Country, and to leverage the power of fashion to continue to shape a global cultural dialogue. New York City is also special place for Ambani as she completed her education here.
Following the festivities—and some fantastic ice cream and carrot cake—the class of 2025 mingled before heading downtown for an unofficial after-party put together by one of their own. It’s this kind of community and kinship among designers that the Fund has always nurtured, both a commitment and a promise that will remain one of its core tenets.
The finalists of the 2025 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund were Ashlynn Park of Ashlyn, Stephanie Suberville of Heirlome, Julian Louie’s Aubero, Bach Mai, Bernard James, Don’t Let Disco by Ashley Moubayed, Gabe Gordon and Timothy Gibbons from Gabe Gordon, Jamie Okuma, Meruert Tolegen, and Peter Do. Alongside Wintour, the selection committee included CFDA chairman Thom Browne; CFDA CEO Steven Kolb, Instagram’s head of fashion Eva Chen; founder of the Fifteen Percent Pledge and Brother Vellies Aurora James; model Paloma Elsesser; Nordstrom vice president and fashion director Rickie De Sole; Roopal Patel, SVP of fashion at Saks; Zac Posen, executive vice president and creative director of Gap Inc. and chief creative officer of Old Navy; and Vogue’s Mark Holgate and Nicole Phelps.
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