move on fashion.(Editorial)

Byline: Anna Wintour

At some point during the recent spring collections in New York, it struck me that the city was buzzing with unprecedented energy. Retailers and editors were flying in from every part of the globe in search of new talent and doing so with a purposefulness that used to be reserved only for London Fashion Week. A generation of American stars is emerging, and I truly believe that an important factor has been the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, launched in 2004.

In retrospect-although we like to think we saw this at the time-2004 clearly was a vintage year. The winners, Proenza Schouler, have just received very significant backing from Valentino, and their spring show was equal to anything I have seen in Paris or Milan. Peter Som, a finalist, is the creative director of Bill Blass (as well as of his accomplished Peter Som line). Derek Lam, a finalist (and a runner-up in 2005), heads a brilliant business and is the creative director of Tod's. Michael and Nicole Colovos, runners-up for Habitual, are today redefining Helmut Lang. And Alexandre Plokhov, a runner-up, is now designing the menswear collection at Versace.

I thought of Plokhov when I went to see Koi Suwannagate, one of this year's ten finalists, present her artisanal knits in a small midtown gallery. Like Plokhov, who once showed in a dingy basement, Koi was making ...