Fashion

Alice + Olivia Partners With CFDA For Young Talent

by Eliza Florendo

The Council of Fashion Designers of America has always been about supporting young talent, providing students with resources like scholarships for high schoolers, college students, and even post-grad students. Not to mention, they help boost designers in their primary stages through the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund — an award that can sky rocket you right into success. And now, they've garnered even more help, as the CFDA partners with Alice + Olivia to elevate young fashion designers even more.

According to WWD, every year, Alice + Olivia will collaborate with a new artist to come up with an unique piece to be auctioned off, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the CFDA. Not only that, different renditions of the piece will be featured in a capsule collection that you can shop at all Alice + Olivia by Stacey Bendet locations and other stores and fifty percent of all profits will go to the CFDA.

Stacey Bendet has already chosen the artist for their first capsule collection—Domingo Zapata, a Spanish-American who has studios in New York, Miami, and Hollywood, according to WWD. Zapata creates neo-Expressionist paintings and also sculpts. The item for auction is a hand-painted ball gown and gown skirt, which will be auctioned off by Paddle8 on April 28.

As for the capsule collection, it will feature a gown, floor-length skirt, and a minidress, "each in a print rendered from a mural painted by Zapata." But not to worry — a few hundred pieces of each will be available for sale.

With such a great cause to support, why not get your shopping on? Pieces from the capsule collection will be fairly affordable, with the minidress at $298. OK, so maybe you won't be getting dinner out for a full week after, but at least you got to say you helped young talent out.

Images: @wwd/Twitter