California Apparel News

The Council of Fashion Designers of America provides a host of services and opportunities for the California design community.

That was the message CFDA President Diane von Furstenberg gave to a group of Los Angeles designers at an Oct. 25 party sponsored by the CFDA and held at von Furstenberg’s home in Beverly Hills.

The New York–based organization is a “web of companies that communicate,” von Furstenberg said. “This is a huge influence. You know that in California, your manufacturing base is very, very big.”

The designer and CFDA president ticked off a list of her organization’s resources, including networking and business incentives such as discounts on FedEx shipping.

She pointed to the success of a lecture titled “The Business of Fashion,” hosted by Saks Fifth Avenue recently in New York. The CFDA and the retailer plan to repeat the lecture for the West Coast market next year, she said.

Guests at the event included several recipients and nominees for the “CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund” award, including Johnson Hartig from Libertine, John Whitledge from Trovata, Kate and Laura Mulleavy from Rodarte, and Scott Sternberg from Band of Outsiders.

Von Furstenberg encouraged all the designers in attendance to apply for the award, stressing the value of the contacts made just through the application process.

The CFDA and von Furstenberg have also been working with Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week and the city of New York to find a new home for the biannual runway shows, which are scheduled to move from Bryant Park in 2009.

And von Furstenberg said she and the CFDA continue to work to support the proposed Design Piracy Prohibition Act, a law that, if passed, will extend copyright protection to fashion designs.

“Copyright is important because it intimidates people and it changes the programming of people and it raises awareness of design,” she said. “The best part about this is a lot of mass merchants are beginning to hire designers— something I really want to encourage because it tells them design matters.”

The intimate party was the second hosted by the CFDA on the West Coast in recent years, and von Furstenberg emphasized her desire to include West Coast designers in the CFDA’s efforts to unify and represent the design community.

“California, we don’t forget about you,” she said. “As a matter of fact, very often we envy you. We should be more and more together. Together we are a force.” —Alison A. Nieder