City of ambition.

Byline: Anna Wintour

This last year has seen a fantastic blossoming of New York fashion talent. It's been well over a decade since Marc Jacobs, Isaac Mizrahi, and Michael Kors emerged, and this is the first time since that I have a real sense of a vital and potentially durable generation of successors. This is very exciting, particularly as the young designers in question have such diverse points of view. In this issue, we bring you ten of the best: the finalists for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award. By the time you read this, one will have been selected as the recipient of a $200,000 grant and a year of business mentoring by a team of Seventh Avenue giants. All ten-and indeed, many other applicants who did not make this particular cut-are brilliant and dedicated and deserving of support. By this I mean: Take a chance and buy their designs, if you haven't done so already.

It is a peculiarity of this industry that our most creative elements are also expected to possess financial wizardry and deep pockets. In the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center, I learned just how hard and unfair life can be for even the most dedicated smaller designer. Fashion week came to a sudden stop, and these young people lost their shows, their deposits, and all hope of getting their work into stores. So Vogue rallied round and organized a group presentation at Carolina Herrera's showroom, and eleven designers got their day in the sun after all.

There's a ...