Erykah Badu celebrated as fashion icon at CFDA Awards after years of pushing boundaries

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NEW YORK (AP) — Erykah Badu has been named a Fashion Icon by the Council of Fashion Designers of America, joking that it’s an honor she’s been hoping for most of her life.

Badu accepted the award Monday night in Manhattan, wearing a jeweled headdress and a Thom Browne jacket, and said she has been trying to win the Icon Award since she was 6 years old. Badu described dressing up as exercise and therapy for her husband.

Andre 3,000 brought out orange warning cones on stage when he introduced Badu, who is the mother of his son.

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“The world is just a private joke between me and my stuff,” she said. Andrew took 3000 cones while out with Badu.

The Grammy Award winner has become one of the greatest red carpet shake-ups over the years, changing the black-tie convention with her own African-focused style of tall hats, headpieces, big jewelry, charms, and layers of patchwork embellished with move-and-make touches. Music.

The CFDA Awards were held at the American Museum of Natural History in a ceremony that attracted celebrities such as Katie Holmes and Kylie Jenner, designers and fashion industry giants to honor the best in design.

The final award of the night went to Rachel Scott of Diotima for Womenswear Designer of the Year. Scott was overcome with emotion as she accepted her award and thanked her mother and the women in Jamaica, her home country, who work on her designs.

“I’ve spent a lot of my career on design teams, so I’m not really used to that recognition,” she said.

Scott, known for her exquisite knit designs, was named Emerging Designer of the Year in 2023.

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Pop star Troye Sivan presented the Menswear Designer of the Year award to Willy Chavarria, making this his second menswear win. Chavarria said it’s a strange time for him to be working on his fall/winter 2025 collection with the election looming.

“I know a lot of people in this room are very concerned about their rights,” he said. “Diversity in humanity makes us so much stronger.”

This year, Chavarria faced off with Mike Amery of Amery, Emily Adams of Buddy Uggla, Tom Brown, and Todd Snyder for the award.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand opened the evening by encouraging influencers, fashion designers and celebrities to dine in the room to leverage their collective influence to get their followers to the polls on Tuesday. “If we wake up on Wednesday and do not recognize this country, and do not leave it on the field, we will have no one to blame but ourselves.”

Designer and CFDA president Thom Browne also drove home the voting message: “Fashion, like democracy, is about choice.”

Actress Molly Gordon and designer Brandon Maxwell presented the award for Emerging Designer of the Year to Russian-born designer Henry Zankov, known for his colorful knitwear. (Maxwell is a previous Emerging Designer winner.)

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Other contenders for the honor include Presley Oldham of Presley Oldham, Tanner Ritchie and Fletcher Cassel of Tanner Fletcher, Jackson Wiederhoft of Wiederhoft and Connor McKnight.

Celebrity duo Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie teamed up to present the Accessory Designer of the Year award to Raul Lopez of L’ore. Lopez said the win is for everyone like him, who grew up as a child of immigrants.

“I’m just a vessel in this industry to guide the kids who come after me to see that they can do it,” he said.

Lopez beat out candidates Anna Khoury and Stuart Vevers for the role of coach, Katherine Holstein for Khaite, and Tory Burch.

Another icon shaking up the fashion industry, Schiaparelli’s Daniel Rosebery was honored as International Designer of the Year. Roseberry’s designs dominated the red carpets with Schiaparelli’s funky outfits and surreal gold embellishments. Actress Nicole Kidman stunned at the Venice Film Festival when she walked the carpet in one of Schiaparelli’s couture corseted looks with an embroidered fringe and a plunging neckline.

Rosebery is the first American to lead a French fashion company.

Badu joins the ranks of celebrities like Serena Williams, Kim Kardashian and Zendaya who have been honored in past years with the CFDA’s Fashion Icon honor.

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