The 2013 CFDA Awards: Red Carpet

Hi, I m Kiara Kabukuru and you are on the red carpet

with style.com for the 2013 CFDA awards.

So excited to be here, we are now awaiting the arrival

of fashion s most iconic designers, honorees,

and a few surprise guests.

It s going to be a great night, let s go.

(upbeat music)

I m here to present an award

to Ricardo Tisci for Givenchy.

I love that all of his dresses are pieces of art.

His work is sculptural, conceptual, be it very emotional.

Getting this award tonight is like a dream come true.

It s exciting to see everybody together

and it s a family, it s like a graduation.

And we all get together and we love each other as a family

and so that s what I like.

So are you regular at the CFDA awards?

I am a regular at this point

but it s always really fun to come

and see beautiful work being acknowledged.

It s Tim Blanks and he s most favorite face

out of the whole fashion industry.

To find that everybody else loves what I do

is so humbling and peculiar and wonderful and overwhelming.

You know I think it s a wonderful day to celebrate

this extraordinary industry but beyond that

of how many lives it really touches.

You look ready to me.

Good, I feel ready, I m going to do

a shot of whiskey before I got out there.

Anything you say is funny.

Thank you, that s nice, wow, I want to multiply you

and put you in the audience.

It s just fun to get dressed up and look fabulous--

See everyone--

Yeah, so it s just the whole spectacle of it all

is really fun.

American fashion is very much a industry of family,

even though designers are competitive they support

each other, they help each other, and we ve done a lot

in New York and the states by supporting new designers.

You don t see all of our friends, peers,

you know everyone from the industry whether

it s designers, models, stylists, everyone comes

in one group and to be able to just really celebrate

and be happy and a little bit silly.

I m presenting best menswear designer this evening.

How exciting.

It is exciting.

It s my first time here, everything is quite exciting.

It s scary if you win, it s scary if you don t.

The whole experience is exciting

and wonderful and terrifying.

I m presenting so I m nervous, I m doing best

accessory designers of the year.

Oooooh.

So it s a really competitive category.

And I m yeah, I m a total fashion geek

so I can t believe I m here.

We still really are just honored to be nominated

and it s, we re a great company, and it s people

we look up to who we re in the running with.

For me I m totally awestruck by the whole room

full of amazing designers that I ve you know, grown up

watching and admiring through all my career

and being inspired by their work.

Great talent here you know, work so hard,

it s so much fun you know.

Yeah.

Every year, come and celebrate.

I was just telling Stella she s like the easiest date.

She came by yesterday, we tried on some clothes,

we had a lot of fun.

Of course, it s always such an honor to come back

to New York and be really acknowledged by my peers,

it s such a great feeling to be a part of a community.

This our 12th consecutive year of underwriting

this event tonight.

Amazing.

And really supporting the platform of celebration

for such an amazing talent here in the United States.

It s such an honor to be acknowledged by the CFDA,

by your peers, just the nomination alone

is really thrilling.

What do you think so far?

I mean, crazy carpet.

Yeah it s so overwhelming, but so amazing.

Last year I was like a wreck, I couldn t see straight.

So this year, I m just taking it all in

but I m really excited, it s honestly

such a dream come true.

I still feel just as anxious

as I ever felt for all of them.

So you never know what s going to happen.

It s great, I mean it s great to just see everybody,

we really never get to see each other

so it s a good reunion of the year.

I m very excited for our friend Vera Wang

getting the lifetime achievement award.

I also, we both love Oscar, seeing Oscar

receive the Founder s award, those are the biggies for us.

Vera and I have been, we ve known each other since,

you know, since I started when I first came out of FIT.

She s had an amazing life of fashion so I m really

excited for Vera.

Oscar defines American elegance, I m unbelievably happy

to see him recognized for just being so special.

I think really for me, it s just such an honor

and to be given this award by all my peers

and everyone in the industry that votes,

I mean, it s designers, it s retailers, it s photographers,

it s editors, it s stylists, it s really kind of the

ultimate, ultimate vindication

of one s life and one s career.

So that was even more fun than

I thought it was going to be, so exciting.

The red carpet s empty, everybody s inside,

the show is about to begin.

So stayed tuned for the CFDA awards on style.com.