CFDA announced Teslin Doud as the winner of the first annual Tory Burch Mentorship Award. Teslin is an environmentally conscious designer from California currently studying fashion at Parsons The New School for Design.

Tory raved about Teslin saying she is incredibly talented and our team is looking forward to helping her realize her enormous potential. As part of her year-long mentorship, Teslin will produce a collection with guidance from the Tory Burch team, including a trip to Première Vision in Paris to select fabric. In addition, she will receive two professionally constructed ready-to-wear pieces for her senior year thesis collection.

In its commitment to support young designers CFDA partnered with MemberTory Burch  to create the Tory Burch Mentorship Award,  which provides the winning student with a unique opportunity to supplement academic learning with first-hand industry experience at one of the world’s most recognized design brands.

CFDA Member Billy Reid took the opportunity after Tim Coppens’ 2014 CFDA Swarovski Award for Menswear win, to sit down at his studio with the designer and talk about his background and inspiration behind his recent collections.
Born and raised in Belgium, Tim is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. After graduation in 1998, he worked with various luxury and sports-performance fashion brands before founding his own label in 2011.
Tim’s distinctive athletic- and street culture-inspired designs have garnered him several notable honors, including the 2012 Ecco Domani Award for Best New Menswear Designer and Fashion Group International’s Rising Star of the Year for 2013, the same year he was a finalist for the Vogue/CFDA Fashion Fund Award.
Excerpts from an email Q&A session between Billy and Reid , including Tim’s reaction on winning his first CFDA award.
BILLY REID: I hear you’re in Europe this week. What’s happening there for you right now?
TIM COPPENS: I am in London shooting my SS15 (spring-summer 2015) look book with (stylist) Tom Van Dorpe and Sharif Hamza. Sharif has integrated the FW13 collection into this amazing motorcycle movie – all big jumps in the Arizona desert, but done with so much style and photographically so stylish. It was perfect for the brand.
Here, we shot the look book and worked on some campaign ideas as well. I have seen the first images and they look amazing; I’m very excited to show (the collection at New York Fashion Week) in a couple of months. We are also working on the next FW14 campaign, which should be out in August.
This is one of the things that I really look forward to doing when each collection is ready. It’s such an important element for my brand; visual communication is something that can tell so much more than explaining. The team is key, though, and it wouldn’t work otherwise.
BR: Tell me about your night at the CFDA Awards. What did you do before and after? Who did you go with? And what was your reaction to winning an award?
TC: I came straight from my studio and afterwards I celebrated with my friends at the Raf Simmons Dior after-party. It was a total surprise and fantastic feeling to have won. I felt and still am extremely honored to have received this award and for all the belief people have in me.

The British icon has unveiled her red hot uniforms for the Sir Richard Branson owned Virgin Atlantic Airline, recycled from plastic bottles.
The designer presented the updated uniforms which were made using a polyester made from recycled plastic bottles and took inspiration from some of her most iconic pieces.The re-imagined red jacket is inspired by the ‘Bettina’ jacket designed in the early 90s with a matching red pencil skirt, which has a cheeky dart to the rear.

The hand drawn wing designs are a recurring theme across all members of the team while a new addition of bags for ground staff has also been introduced by the Ethical Fashion Initiative in Nairobi in collaboration with the International Trade Centre, United Nations.
Westwood’s design references her enduring interest in 40s French couture cutting, with a double breasted ‘drape coat’ for women, and updating the classic red shoe with Westwood’s iconic hourglass heel.

Male crew too will be stylish in the skies with a sharp Saville Row inspired three piece suit with a contemporary twist in a deep burgundy Oxford weave wool.

Over 7,500 staff including cabin crew, pilots, Clubhouse staff and Virgin Holidays employees will receive the new uniform consisting of 22 pieces in total, which has been trialed across airports and on board over the past year.