BY MARYANNE GRISZ

Global Creative Director: Wes Gordon

There is something particularly powerful about seeing a designer build upon the heritage of an established American fashion house while continuing to move it forward.

Attending Wes Gordon’s collection for Carolina Herrera was a reminder that creative leadership requires both respect for what came before and the confidence to reinterpret it for today.

That balance—heritage and evolution—is increasingly important across our industry.

“Forty-five years gives you an extraordinary heritage to work with,” says Gordon. “This collection is about taking everything we love about Herrera and asking what it looks like today”

A former Rising Star winner, FGI is celebrating Wes this October at Fashion Group International’s Night of Stars with the Fashion Visionary Award!

Designer: Prabal Gurung

For Spring 2027, a combination of elegant restraint and inspiration from his Nepalese background led designer Prabal Gurung to show his strongest collection in years. The color palette and embroideries choices he made, showed just how fancifully the South Asian influence can be woven into dressing for every modern woman. The show opened with a white strapless silk midi dress with raw edged hems that would look equally natural worn as with sandals for a beach wedding or with high jewelry for the most sophisticated of soirées. Next came exaggerated silk opera coats, reminiscent of bomber jackets, belted below the waist for maximum dramatic effect. The first of these walked in black satin and the latter in the stunning brick red embroidery. Cape backed gowns with daringly low side slits walked in silk, linen and a green embroidery that would look at home at Monet’s Giverny. Overall the collection proved both cohesive and incredibly versatile, a combination many strive for but far fewer achieve.    Prabal was honored at FGI Night of Stars 2022.

Designer: Frederick Anderson

A Note from the Designer: A 250 year celebration of America.

“You are invited to my rich and full garden, because like me, we are all descendants of immigrants. Everyone is invited to my Garden party celebrating all the stories of our ancestors who built a country where we are free from persecution for having individual beliefs.

 American style has been influenced by all the people who settled and built lives here. Coming from the South, I have a deep love for Folk music. It’s through folk music that we have shared stories and history since the beginning of our countries existence. I’m honored to have Grammy Award and two time Juno Award winner, Allison Russell to have opened the show with her Grammy-winning song “Eve was Black” to remind us of all the pain we have endured to become a free people and free country.”

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

(Emma Lazarus)

Frederick is 2021 FGI Rising Star Winner