To the next 60: CFDA members share their hopes for the future

When Tom Ford announced he would step down as CFDA Chairman last May, it marked the end of an unprecedented three-year term in the council's six decades.

"I could not have imagined the extraordinary circumstances in which the industry and the world would have to navigate - that a pandemic would shut down the world and forever change the course of our lives and businesses,” the designer wrote in his initial statement.

Ford remains in an advisory role through the summer (with Steven Kolb as interim chairman ), but the question of his successor is still pending. While this next face of American fashion is tasked with leading it through a rapidly changing landscape, the transition in leadership tends to bring new ideas to the fore.

Related Galleries

Here some of the designers – established and emerging – who make up today's CFDA reflect on their past experiences, explain how they hope to get the most out of their membership, and share what they would like to see the newly elected president accomplish in the future.

Abrima Erwiah, Studio One Eighty Nine

Abrima Erwiah Courtesy

Year of induction: 2022 (intermediate level)

I am grateful to the CFDA for playing an active role in the growth of our business. I think it would be interesting for the new president to focus on innovation and the future of fashion through resources related to Web3 and the metaverse. I'm really fascinated by the opportunity to create more democratic and inclusive design that is sustainable in virtual space, pushing the boundaries of how we can further integrate virtual and physical systems as designers and embrace the use of new technologies such as wearables, NFTs, biomaterials and other innovations still on the horizon and translate them into our work.

Alejandra Alonso Rojas

Alejandra Alonso Rojas