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Fashion Trust U.S. Inaugural Awards: All the Winners

Ryma Chikhoune and Booth Moore
·3 min read

Fashion Trust U.S. — the nonprofit committed to funding and nurturing young design talent — hosted its inaugural awards ceremony on Tuesday evening in Los Angeles, awarding designer prizes in six categories.

Hosted by comedian Phoebe Robinson at Goya Studios, the event proved it’s worth paying attention to, giving out awards in Ready-to-Wear, Jewelry, Inclusivity, Sustainability, as well as a Graduate Award and Google Creativity Award. The latter recognizes a designer making an impact through creativity.

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Here are the night’s winners, who each took home a Fairmined gold trophy designed by sculptor and jeweler Ana Khouri:

Aisling Camps received the St. John Ready-to-Wear Award, allowing the designer to produce a collaboration with the Southern California luxury brand and receive mentorship by its global chief executive officer Andy Lew. He and Maria Sharapova gave out the award. Camps is a New York-based mechanical engineer-turned-knitwear designer whose comfy-sexy pieces have been worn by Michelle Obama, Jennifer Aniston, Cardi B and more.

The Jewelry award went to Soull and Dynasty Ogun of L’Enchanteur, presented by Tracee Ellis Ross. The Brooklyn-based identical twin creators, whose talisman-like jewelry was featured in Beyonce’s “Black is King” album, and has been worn by Erykah Badu and others, will be given a grant and professional mentorship from FTUS.

The Graduate Award, sponsored by Shop with Google and presented by Law Roach, went to West African fashion designer Papa Oppong. The New York City-based creative will receive a grant and professional mentorship from Google. The recent Fashion Institute of Technology grad is a native of Ghana.

Jacques Agbobly of Agbobly received the Inclusivity Award, also sponsored by Shop with Google, for the recently rebranded collection formerly known as Black Boy Knits. Meanwhile the Sustainability Award went to Elena Velez, who also took home the Emerging American Designer of the Year Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2022. Each will receive a financial grant and professional mentoring from FTUS.

Presented by Ciara and designer Mike Amiri, the Google Creativity Award was awarded to Puppets and Puppets. The label was founded in 2018 by Carly Mark and Ayla Argentina.

Fashion Trust U.S. is the brainchild of Tania Fares, who assembled a buzzy board of advisers for the contest, including Kate Hudson and Miranda Kerr, stylists Karla Welch and Roach, LB Media founder and former InStyle editor Laura Brown, Harper’s Bazaar editor in chief Samira Nasr, Academy Award winning costume designer Arianne Phillips and designer/TV personality Tan France.

Using seed donations from the L.A.-based British heiress Jordana Reuben Yechiel, jewelry designer Jacquie Aiche and 24 other founding patrons in the real estate, finance and art worlds, Fares set up the nonprofit Fashion Trust U.S. in 2022, with the goal of awarding prizes in amounts determined by a designer’s need.

The event brought out Demi Moore with daughter Scout LaRue Willis, who performed; Heidi Klum; Paula Abdul; Olivia Wilde; Kathryn Newton; Christine Chiu; Alessandra Ambrosio; Adir Abergel; Sabrina Dhowre Elba; Jurnee Smollett; Zoey Deutch; Madison Bailey; Chris Appleton; Lukas Gage; Halston Sage; Lake Bell; Charlotte Lawrence; Kiernan Shipka; Lucy Hale; Madeline Brewer, Hannah Einbinder and Kate Beckinsale.

Google was the evening’s lead sponsor, followed by St. John, Farfetch and Code8 Beauty.

Launch Gallery: Inside Fashion Trust U.S.'s Inaugural Awards

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