Pyer Moss' Kerby Jean-Raymond wins CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund

By

Gabriella Lacombe

Published
Nov 6, 2018

Kerby Jean-Raymond of Pyer Moss was awarded the 15th annual CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, while Emily Adams Bode of menswear brand Bode and Jonathan Cohen were named runners-up at a ceremony held Monday night at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Serving as the brand's creative director, Jean-Raymond quickly navigated Pyer Moss into the fashion spotlight by using design to celebrate black culture, critique stigma and create conversations around social issues like depression and police brutality. As part of his victory, the designer will receive $400,000 in prize money. 

As runners-up, Bode and Jonathan Cohen, whose eponymous label focuses on women's ready-to-wear, will both receive $150,000.

The three top finalists were chosen from a list of 10, which included Raul Lopez's Luar, Matthew Adams Dolan, Batsheva and Christian Cowan, among others.

The winners were chosen by a panel of judges, including Anna Wintour, Joseph Altuzarra, Eva Chen, Nordstrom’s Jeffrey Kalinsky, the CFDA’s Steven Kolb, Saks Fifth Avenue’s Roopal Patel, Theory’s Andrew Rosen, Diane von Furstenberg, and Vogue’s Mark Holgate and Nicole Phelps.

Since the brand's founding in 2013, Pyer Moss has been publicly celebrated by fashionable elites and activists like Tracee Ellis Ross and Kimberly Drew, and landed on Vogue’s best collections of Spring 2019 list. The brand's collections have previously brought obscure elements of black history to the surface, with pieces inspired by everything from black cowboys to Weeksville, one of the first free black communities of the 19th century. 

Recently celebrating its fifth anniversary, Pyer Moss has previously collaborated on collections with Reebok and LVMH's Hennessy to wide praise.