I was two hours into a flight to London when the Associated Press called the New York City Mayoral race for Zohran Mamdani. I did what any blue-haired girl libbing out would do: Ordered two glasses of champagne, cheered, and texted everyone back to home to try to catch the vibes. Mamdani’s election marks a rare moment of progressive optimism in the United States, where amidst the lunacy and evil of the presidential administration, voters proved that equality and community still matter.
Twenty four hours before this history-making election, American fashion’s leaders had come together to vote for the most important designers of 2025. At the CFDA Awards, the Council of Fashion Designers of America rallies together celebrities, designers, retailers, and the fashion press to raise money for the organization as well as champion American design at home and abroad. Honorées included W Magazine’s Sara Moonves (one of the smartest EICs in the game right now), Alaïa’s Pieter Mulier (one of the cleverest designers), and A$AP Rocky (only outshined by his partner Rihanna). Iconoclism was marked by honoring André Walker, Ralph Rucci, and Donatella Versace with additional honors—three tasteful troublemakers who have always cut their own paths. (André so much so that after accepting his award, he rolled around on the red carpet with it, the handsome devil!)
The real story of the CFDAs are the four voting prizes: Womenswear Designer of the Year, Menswear Designer of the Year, Accessories Designer of the Year, and Emerging Designer of the Year. Hundreds of American fashion people (including me!) voted.
Let me set a scene quickly: Over the past five years, we’ve voted awards into the hands of Telfar Clemens, Luar’s Raul Lopez, Supreme’s James Jebbia, and Rick Owens, and Diotima’s Rachel Scott. Christopher John Rogers, Willy Chavarria, and Emily Adams Bode Aujla have taken home the statuettes, too. A group of people who represent the diverse interests of American audiences. Some want saucy clothes, some want fabulous accessories, some want color or logos, others want fantastical nostalgia, and others still just want a blazer with the biggest shoulders you have ever seen. It’s fun to platform American designers who operate on the fringes of the industry and push them towards the center because that is, in and of itself, the most American process. Polling at 1% to a niche audience and then becoming a mainstream hit: The American Dream.
It was surprising, given the social and political climate of our country, to see the big CFDA Awards go to brands with a more traditional bent. The big winners this year were Ralph Lauren (womenswear designer of the year), Thom Browne (menswear designer of the year), Ashlynn Park (emerging designer of the year), and Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen of The Row (accessories designer of the year). Ralph, Thom, Ashlynn, and Ashley and MK make incredible clothes with a chic, tasteful, prestigious aesthetic, but among the ready-to-wear designers, the suit is the story. If Ralph established the American suit, Thom artfully subverted it, and Ashlynn made it covetable for a working woman with a sense of flair.
There are few living people more enraptured by the Ralph-Thom dynamic than I—I want to wear a tux with the bravado of Ralph on the ranch and I want to relive my catholic school days in Thom’s fucked up, punky little suits (shout out Brandon Tan for putting Sombr in a fabulous 2011 punk collection number at the CFDAs). I don’t own any Ashlyn (the designer is two nns, her brand is one), but I fell in love when I saw Vogue’s Nicole Phelps in a peplum bustier at the ceremony.
But is a suit the most important American look in 2025? Some would say yes—Zohran does wear a suit after all. But New York City’s incoming first lady, Rama Dawaji, wore a denim top by Zeid Hijazi, an Ulla Johnson skirt, Eddie Borgo earrings, and pointy pumps. In boardrooms, suits are letting loose and on the street, girls favor Alo Yoga sets, vintage jeans, or pirate boots instead of adult clothes with a sense of propriety. Even celebrities don’t really wear suits. Timothée Chalamet is on the cover of Vogue—Vogue!—in jeans. I would argue the only time suits look cool—or contemporary—is when they are intentionally fucked up, like Teyana Taylor’s Swarovski-dripped Thom Browne skirt suit, Mark Ronson’s Tom Ford bathrobe, Alton Mason’s shirtless swag, or A$AP Rocky’s V-neck (sinful!) with a Chanel two-piece. Benito Skinner’s Weiderhoft send up of tailoring with his trad-dad hair—that’s doing tailoring in an ironic 2025 way.
Walking around the cocktail hour of the CFDA Awards, I had another thought: I’m not sure if the irony of holding American fashion’s biggest night in a temple to extinction events is intentional. I’m not sure if we should even call it irony. But the Museum of Natural History, filled with models of T. Rexes, dodo birds, and buffaloes, did cast a funny backdrop during the cocktail hour of the CFDA Awards. Everyone was so happy to pose with the creatures of Earth’s past. But there are so many wonderful things happening in Earth’s present—and future. Here’s hoping the fashion industry can see them and protect them.