And the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award Winner is...Alexander Wang!!

Alexander Wang Resort 2009 Silk Dress (Turquoise) $630

Whoever wins the CFDA(Council of Fashion Designers of America)/Vogue Fashion Fund Award receives a cash award and a year of business mentorship to help encourage and enable emerging designers to pursue their design plans.

This year (the fifth year), Alexander Wang took the winning prize of $200,000. Runner-ups, Lisa Mayock and Sophie Buhai of Vena Cava and Albertus Q. Swanepoel, both get $50,000. Out of 102 applications, ten finalists are picked. Last year, ROGAN (Rogan Gregory) won and 3.1 Phillip Lim and Philip Crangi Jewelry came up as runner-ups. Among the ten finalists this year, I wanted John Patrick of Organic to win for ecological reasons, but I have no complaints now that Alexander Wang won. After all, Alexander Wang does have more innovative designs.

You'll find lots of press coverage on Alexander Wang, so I won't cover it all here. Just know that he is very young (24) and very prolific. He has a new shoe and t-shirt line, and he is partnering with cosmetic giant Shu Uemura. I saw a rack of his clothes (and dresses!) at Barneys and I was surprised by how much I liked his clothes. His clothes are simple, hip, different, and full of personality. If you live in New York, do take note of the Alexander Wang Sample Sale (Dec. 11-13), details at Couture Snob. Otherwise, check out ShopStyle for more of his apparel online.