Last night was a big night for the fashion industry — it was the CFDA Awards, our version of the Oscars, Emmys, Tonys and Grammys, all rolled into one. Designer of the Year winners included Tabitha Simmons, Tom Ford and The Row’s Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, with honors for emerging talent going to Rosie Assoulin, Hood by Air’s Shayne Oliver and Rachel Mansur and Floriana Gavriel of Mansur Gavriel. Betsey Johnson snapped up the Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award — and, at a spry 72, performed her signature cartwheel-and-split acrobatics on stage — while Kanye West introed the Fashion Icon Award winner, Pharrell Williams. Williams, for his part, gave shout-outs to a medley of inspirations: Zaha Hadid, Alber Elbaz, Marc Jacobs, Ralph Lauren, among others. A little app called Instagram won The Media Award. And Chelsea Clinton gave a beautiful speech in tribute to Oscar de la Renta, recounting her first conversation with the designer, when she was 17 or 18, in which he encouraged her to come out of her shell.
And the fashion? It was fun and fabulous, of course — from the vibrantly colorful (Tory, left) to the coolly fringed (Liya Kebede) to the sexy and sheer (Hanne Gaby Odiele). Meanwhile, the award for unexpected accessory of the evening has to go Josh Ostrovsky, a.k.a. Instagram star The Fat Jew, who merged merriment with marketing savvy and carried a bottle of his own White Girl Rosé (available this summer!) down the red carpet.