By Phillip D. Johnson
New Television Series Celebrateing the 10th Anniversary of The Fashion Fund Premieres December 2013
Yesterday in Los Angeles, Ovation and Conde Nast Entertainment announced “The Fashion Fund,” a television fashion series. The series documents the excitement of emerging fashion designers vying for the chance to be named the 2013 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winner. “The Fashion Fund” premieres this December, only on Ovation. “The Fashion Fund” series is an unprecedented look at a level of support, encouragement and insight that few other designers will ever receive.
The CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund is in its 10th year and has transformed emerging designers into true fashion icons, like inaugural winners Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler and recent winners such as Joseph Altuzurra (2011) and Greg Chait of The Elder Statesman (2012).
Over the past ten years, The Council of Fashion Designers of America/Vogue Fashion Fund has given significant financial and professional support to 27 brands. This year’s ten finalists—announced by new selection committee members Marcus Wainwright and David Neville of Rag & Bone at their studio in early summer—stands out for having more menswear designers/finalists than in recent history, as well as a few names that will be unfamiliar to many outside the industry. Over the next four months, this group, in addition to running their businesses as usual, will create one-of-a-kind pieces for Uniqlo, stage a runway show at Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, which all leads up to the big announcement of the winner and runner-ups on November 11. The 2013 finalists are Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne of Public School, Jason Jones and Mike Feldman of Parabellum, Juan Carlos Obando, Marc Alary, Misha Nonoo of Nonoo, Ryan Lobo and Ramon Martin of TOME, Shimon Ovadia and Ariel Ovadia of Ovadia & Sons, Tim Coppens, Todd Snyder and Veronica Swanson Beard and Veronica Miele Beard of Veronica Beard
“This is the real deal. There have been a lot of fashion competition series on television, but nothing comes close to matching the authenticity and talent found in ‘The Fashion Fund’,” said Robert Weiss, Ovation’s Chief Creative Officer. “It’s truly an honor to be working with the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund.”
Working alongside some of the top names in fashion, ten innovative, American-based designers, compete for the top award that carries an incredible $300,000 grant and a one-year mentorship with an industry titan. The CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund selection committee is comprised of iconic names from Vogue Editor-In-Chief Anna Wintour and CFDA President Diane von Furstenberg to top-level executives such as Ken Downing of Neiman Marcus, Andrew Rosen of Theory, Jenna Lyons of J.Crew, and others.
Conde Nast Entertainment (CNE) is a division of Conde Nast recently created to focus on the development, production and distribution of original television, feature film and digital video offerings based on the company’s iconic media brands and the articles they have generated such as Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring, which originated from an article written by Nancy Jo Sales for Vanity Fair.
“‘The Fashion Fund’ will captivate audiences, documenting the rise of the next generation of designers as they gain immeasurable insight from the industry’s foremost talent,” said Dawn Ostroff, President, Conde Nast Entertainment. “Ovation is a perfect home for the series and we look forward to giving viewers a behind-the-scenes look.”
Watching “The Fashion Fund,” viewers are given exclusive glimpses into the fashion world as they journey into the lives of the emerging designers. They will get to know the designers as their visions, technical abilities, and business acumen are all tested – pushing them to their highest potential. The series takes viewers inside legendary studio visits, a Vogue fashion photo shoot and culminates with a presentation at NYC Fashion Week and the announcement of the 2013 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winner.
Conde Nast is home to some of the world’s most celebrated media brands. In the United States and publishes 18 consumer magazines, four business-to-business publications, 27 websites, and more than 50 apps for mobile and tablet devices, all of which define excellence in their categories. The company also owns Fairchild Fashion Media (FFM), whose portfolio of brands serves as the leading source of news and analysis for the global fashion community. For more information, visit www.condenast.com
Break Thru Films’ mission is to create powerful character-driven documentaries and dramatic films. Their films Joan Rivers - A Piece Of Work, The Devil Came on Horseback, Burma Soldier, and The Trials of Darryl Hunt have been Sundance and Tribeca Film Festival favorites winning numerous awards airing on HBO, National Geographic, Showtime. Other projects include: Secret Access: UFO’s On the Record (History Channel), and short films for Kenneth Cole, Sundance Institute / Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Most recently, they created the national marriage equality spots for the Human Rights Campaign. Annie and Ricki have been recognized with the Best Female Filmmakers Award – San Diego Film Festival, Adrienne Shelly Excellence in Filmmaking Award and Lena Sharpe/Women in Cinema Persistence of Vision Award-Seattle International Film Festival.
Ovation is America’s only arts network, whose mission is to surface and connect the world to all forms of art and artistic expression, with a one-of-a-kind programming mix that is made up of selectively curated series, films, documentaries and specials. The network reaches a national audience of nearly 50 million homes and is available on national cable systems, as well as nationally on DIRECTV, Dish, Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-Verse. Ovation is also available on VOD (in both standard and high definition).
“The Fashion Fund” will premiere in December of 2013 with six, initial one-hour episodes on Ovation. The series is produced by Break Thru Films, headed by Emmy nominated directors, writers, and producers Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg, in association with CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America), Vogue and Conde Nast Entertainment.