Tiffany & Co. & CFDA’s First Jewelry Designer Award Celebrates Rising Stars

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Cocktails at Tiffany’s, anyone? On Wednesday night, Tiffany & Co. and the CFDA gathered the fashion industry’s sparkliest stars for their inaugural Jewelry Designer Award. The pair’s collaborative honor bestowed Khiry designer Jameel Mohammed with a $50,000 grant, as well as paid one-year fellowship under Tiffany & Co.’s in-house design team.

David Perry, Symoné Currie, Ian Delucca, Hi Vu, Pamela Zamore, Angie Marei, Malyia McNaughton, Jameel Mohammed, and Marvin Linares (Joe Schildhorn/BFA.com)

“The program is specific to support creative jewelers from underrepresented communities, so they’re either a designer of color, AAPI, LGBTQIA+, women,” CFDA CEO Steven Kolb told The Daily Front Row. “That was an important focus of the program, and connected to something Tiffany has called Tiffany & Co. Atrium, which is their program around diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. We have the CFDA Impact Program, which is our program, so it was bringing those two important initiatives together to give opportunity and access to jewelers that might not otherwise get that access.”

When choosing the award’s honoree, both Tiffany’s and the CFDA took numerous factors into account. The deliberation process was ultimately made by the dual organization’s selection committee, which included Joan Smalls, Bethann Hardison, Jason Wu, Frank Everett, Jahleel Weaver, Rajni Jacques, and Nathalie Verdeille.

“It’s first of its kind award in the jewelry industry,” Stephanie Oueda Cruz, Tiffany’s vice president of diversity, inclusion, and belonging, told us last night. “What we’re really looking for is not only to uplift and find a new generation of American designers, but to uplift the whole industry with us. We’re very, very proud of tonight. Several things were taken into consideration, one of them being the heritage of Tiffany & Co. and how the each of the participants were taking this into account. Of course, another element was their creativity and their inventiveness going through that. The last one was how this collection would fit in the overall, and how you could translate a piece of jewelry to homeware, how transferable it was.”

Ultimately, Mohammed took home the night’s grand prize. The young designer was one of the finalists for the honor, a group that included David Perry, Simoné Currie, Ian Delucca, Hi Vu, Pamela Zamore, Angie Marei, Malyia McNaughton, and Marvin Linares.

“Thank you so much,” Mohammed said in his acceptance speech. “There are so many people that I have to thank—the judging committee, the entire Tiffany team, the CFDA team. There are so many people who made this moment possible, and I’m so grateful to be a part of it. I’ve long believed in the power of Tiffany as a brand, as an American luxury brand. I’m an American luxury designer, and I’m really excited to be where I belong.”

Jameel Mohammed and Stephanie Oueda Cruz (Matteo Prandoni/BFA.com)

During the festivities, we also received an update on what’s been going on at the CFDA this year, as the organization prepares for New York Fashion Week and advocates its outreach and list of organizations aiding the tragic Los Angeles wildfires.

“We are back in a physical office after being remote for a while, down on Water Street at WSA. [The building] is great. Every morning before 11:15, you can get a free coffee, and not just a black coffee from a drip—you can get an almond milk late with a pump of mocha! That’s a big thing. Thom [Browne] got re-eleted [as Chairman], so it’s continuing his vision of creativity at the forefront of everything we do.”

Steven Kolb, Jameel Mohammed, and Stephanie Oueda Cruz (Joe Schildhorn/BFA.com)

Guests included Jessica Wang, Tina Leung, Christian Juul Nielsen, Gigi Burris O’Hara, Sam Broekema, Bach Mai, Lauren Santo Domingo, Jacques Agbobly, Kim Shui, Peter Marino, Rachel Besser, Jen Rubio, Paul Arnhold, Terry Long, Stacie Henderson, Zoe Buckman, Tyrone Smith, Jonathan Cohen, Tina Leung, Freya Drohan, Roxanne Robinson, Kate Barton, Victoria Reynolds, and more.

Below, discover more photos from the special evening on Fifth Avenue.

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