In addition to a £200,000 cash prize — which translates roughly to $315,000 at current exchange rates and proves that the dollar is pretty much worthless —  Saunders will also receive mentoring from the BFC.

“I’m so happy about winning the fund,” Saunders said. “The last 12 months have been an exciting time for me and my team and I’m very proud of all their hard work. We have many exciting plans for the near future and this along with the support network provided by the BFC will enable us to achieve our goals.”

British Vogue EIC Alexandra Shulman added, “I am delighted that Jonathan has won this year’s award. His recent collections have shown that he is a designer who can provide beautiful clothes that women enjoy wearing and he is in a great position to build on his current success.” [Vogue UK]

A look from E. Tautz's spring 2012 collection

Designers including Aquascutum, Christopher Raeburn, E. Tautz, J.W. Anderson and TOPMAN will show from Friday, June 15 through Sunday, June 17, immediately preceding the men’s fashion weeks in Milan and Paris — meaning those limey labels can finally capitalize on all the sartorial testosterone running through Europe. Tom Ford and Christopher Kane are among the members of the committee overseeing London Collections: Men, headed by British GQ editor Dylan Jones.

The news of this new men’s fashion weekend delivers on BFC CEO Caroline Rush’s promise that “Menswear in London will be put in the spotlight this year,” made shortly after James Long became the first menswear designer to win one of the Council’s Fashion Forward  prizes. [Telegraph]

Fashion Fund winner/certified hottie Henry Holland

Holland, Long, Gray and Katrantzou are in some great company as past winners of the Fashion Forward prize have included Jonathan Saunders, Christopher Kane, Erdem and Giles. Meanwhile, Long is the first menswear designer to snatch the prize and according to BFC CEO Caroline Rush, the time was ripe: ’Menswear in London will be put in the spotlight this year making now the perfect time to introduce a menswear prize to Fashion Forward.” [Vogue UK]

-Anna Wintour‘s biannual HJ to the industry, Fashion’s Night Out, will make an uncalled-for return next year to once again haunt the sartorial streets. [WWD]

-  Jonathan Saunders, Mary Katrantzou, Marios Schwab and Nicholas Kirkwood are among the finalists for next year’s British Fashion Council/Vogue Fashion Fund. [Vogue UK]

- Michael Kors IPO is listed at $20/share, which will probably be the least you’ll ever pay for a Michael Kors anything from here on out. [WWD]

- The First Family posed for a new family portrait and while it’s all cute and familial, we can clearly see Michelle‘s roots and homegirl could use a touch-up. [Just Jared]

- Vera Wang is getting in touch with her inner dude by outfitting some real dudes. While brides will wear her doomed David’s Bridal gowns to their weddings, their grooms will wear her new Men’s Warehouse tuxedos. And then everyone will go to the Olive Garden and cap the night off with a few PBRs. [WWD]

- While Vera slums it in the discount wholesale bin, Levi’s is classing their game up. The jeans giant will show at New York Fashion Week for the first time come February. Hopefully the CFDA will have cut whatever day said show is by then. [WWD]

Didier Grumbach / Photo: The Crowd Blog

“I don’t understand why Paris completely and totally just ignored what all of us have worked so hard on,” DVF said. “I am speechless. I just e-mailed [Chambre Syndicale president Didier Grumbach] and said that I was completely in shock.”

Grumbach, for his part, plans on sending a letter explaining his position to von Furstenberg, but for the Chambre, the decision came down to a matter of deadlines. “It was perfectly open and clear and very obvious that our members could not accept this…” Grumbach explained, referring to the previous back and forth between everyone.

“We fall at the end of the calendar, ” he continued. “All of the member houses agreed that this would make them very late in taking orders, which in turn would be penalizing for deliveries. It’s an industrial reason: you are a manufacturer, you need your orders early…Who wants to be penalized? It doesn’t make sense. We have had lots of meetings about pushing Paris show dates earlier as many brands really want that.”

In a board meeting presided over by Hermès deputy managing director Guillaume de Seynes, members voted unanimously to keep  their show dates, thus flying in the face of the proposed second Thursday rule.  For 2013, Paris will show from February 26 (a Tuesday) to March 6 and then from September 24 (also a Tuesday) to October 2; the dates for 2014 are (Tuesday) February 25  to March 5 and (Tuesday) September 23 to October 1.

And in a case of that playground staple monkey see-monkey do, Milan’s Camera Nazionale della Moda president Mario Boselli proclaimed: “We were going to move if Paris was also moving. As Paris is not moving, we won’t either.” He then stuck out his tongue, stole the CFDA’s lunch money and pushed London’s British Fashion Council off the swings.

So what does this all mean? Well, according to Boselli, in order to avoid any show schedule overlap New York and the CFDA are going to have to swallow their pride: “Perhaps the only way out would be for the Americans to reduce their fashion week to seven days, as nine days is too long, and start a couple of days after Labor Day.”

Now that Paris won’t change its schedule, neither will Milan, leaving London and New York on the other side of the aisle — and I wouldn’t be surprised if one side casually slipped out a stilettoed heel to “accidentally” trip the other on the march towards compromise. [WWD]

Photo: Richard Guaty

“We proved that there was no agreement with the Council of Fashion Designers of America and the British Fashion Council regarding the three years 2012-2013-2014, and that, in any case, the postponement of a week for the dates of September 2012 was not on the table,” said Boselli.

Fashion week in Milan next year, Sept. 19th-25th, will directly conflict with New York and London —  Sept. 13th-20th and Sept. 21st-25th, respectively. With more than a bit of spite, Milan blames the CFDA for moving NYFW a week later than in previous years and if they were to follow suit, Italian designers wouldn’t be able to satisfy production needs.

Boselli also finds accusations that the Italians are not honoring its commitments as “an aggressive and arrogant stance towards the CNMI” since they had set their 2012 dates in March of last year.

DVF, in an open letter to the fashion community, reasserts the CFDA’s stance on the “Second Thursday” rule:

Editors, retailers and designers  like the consistency of every designer always showing on the same day of the week season after season. It makes it so much easier for everyone to plan and attend shows…We did not change from the agreement we reached of starting Fashion Season in New York on the same day every year…I also believe this conflict is a misunderstanding. I am convinced it will be resolved and that the agreement that was made 3 years ago at great cost and effort is valid and will be kept.

President of France’s Chambre Syndicale, Didier Grumbach, also thinks that this is all just one big misunderstanding, though he agrees with Boselli that the rule was only temporary: “We always said that it is impossible to plan anything beyond three years as you never know what kind of events might come up…The idea was always that we would meet up again once the three-year time period was up.”

If all this back and forth between everyone is confusing, matters got a whole lot messier when the CFDA and the BFC sent letters to Italian designers asking to help Boselli and Grumbach “stick to this agreement and maintain the current flow of dates.” Those designers, for their part, wholeheartedly support the CNMI.

For now, it looks like no one is backing down though von Furstenberg is still holding out hope for a compromise. [WWD, WWD -- sub req'd]

Photo: Trendland

Italian designers are forming a united front to decide on their own dates, out of the three following options: 1.) move to July; 2.) show before New York in September; or 3.) leave things the way they are, which could mean an overlap between Milan and London.

Condé Nast, for its part, is not having any of this. In a letter to Mario Boselli, head of the Italian Chamber of Fashion ”obtained”  – *cough* stolen *cough*– by WWD, CEO Jonathan Newhouse writes that Vogue editors “like the schedule the way it is presently organized. We at Condé Nast do not want the schedule to be changed. We very much oppose moving the Milan shows earlier so that they overlap or conflict with the London fashion shows — or with the New York fashion shows or those of any market.”

Newhouse then goes on to basically threaten a boycott by all Vogue editors — American, British, French and Italian — of Milan shows, stating matter-of-factly that “they will not under any circumstances abandon the London or New York shows if the Milan shows are moved earlier.”

The root of the conflict stems from a pact in 2008 when all four cities agreed to kick-off the fashion weeks on the second Thursday of February and September. Boselli claims that the agreement was only for three years while the CFDA‘s Steven Kolb and the British Fashion Council‘s Caroline Rush contend that it was indeed a permanent arrangement.

As for the fromage standing alone, Paris is expected to side with Milan. However, Didier Grumbach, head of the Chambre Syndicale, would rather come to a compromise and wants everyone to just chill the eff out: “When planning our schedules we have to factor in the time constraints of houses such as Jean Paul Gaultier or Givenchy that deliver couture, men’s and women’s shows with one designer. In any case, these things can’t be improvised. We have our locations. To move dates on venues like the Grand Palais cannot be improvised. Those dates are decided months and months in advance. If [anyone wants to] move dates for 2013, why not, we have the time to talk about it, to arrange it.”

Frankly, it’s a little odd that London is siding with New York considering the hubbub over model castings earlier this season, with London designers blaming New York for hogging all the best girls and the general feeling that LFW was being squeezed out. Now it seems Milan is feeling the crunch and are going to have to come to a decision soon or face the wrath of Wintour. [WWD, sub req'd]

Models on Todd Lynn's Spring 2012 runway / Style.com

According to Carole White, founder of Premier Model Management and not the biggest Naomi Campbell fan, ”We’re not just talking about one or two big girls. Jacobs had numerous models holding on options right up until the day of his show meaning they all stayed in New York just in case they got cast.”

White goes on to say, ”Gucci demanded that girls fly to Milan on Saturday to meet Frida to see if she would consider them for her show, which meant Saturday got trashed. Then the girls were expected to fly straight back to London, and if Gucci were interested, fly back to Milan again on Sunday for another round of casting, then for fittings on Monday. Only a tiny fraction of them realistically have a shot at being in that show — we all know it will be full of mega girls. I find it insulting that a designer like Frida thinks London is so insignificant that she would do that.”

For agents and models alike, Gucci and Jacobs are major gets, but that leaves the already packed London schedule of designers feeling like fashion’s bastard step-children. A source at Todd Lynn claims to have “lost 10 out of 19 girls,” with agents calling them in the middle of the night to pull their girls and some models not even showing up for fittings because they’ve flown off to Milan.

Also not helping matters is LOVE magazine editor Katie Grand — damn you Katie Grand — who styled for Jacobs and also styled for the London-based designer Giles Deacon. Grand demanded a five-hour call time — which one “fashion insider” calls ”unnecessary, absurd, selfish and wrong,” citing Paris’ strict two-hour limit — thus monopolizing any girls left in town after Burberry.

Amidst fears that London Fashion Week may be squeezed out all together, the British Fashion Council is beginning to feel the heat. The BFC is being accused of mismanaging the show calendar and for not standing up to the organizers behind the  New York and Milan fashion weeks.

Meanwhile, CEO of the BFC, Caroline Rush, insists that something is being done. She’s not particularly clear what that something is, but the Council has “invested time in developing direct relationships with model agencies to better understand their challenges and encourage them to send more internationally-recognised catwalk models to London. This season, the models at designers such as Jonathan Saunders, Erdem, Christopher Kane and Tom Ford have been of a global standard.”

Well, for those handful of shows, good for you. But for everyone else suffering at the model-grabbing claws of New York and Milan: damn you, Caroline Rush. [Telegraph]

Credit: Fashion Lover

“I am delighted that Christopher has won the second BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund Award,” British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman said. “The shortlist was very strong and we were impressed by the level of talent which was inspiring. Christopher and Tammy have worked immensely hard and it is wonderful to see a designer with his vision and commitment rewarded.”

Credit: Fashion Lover

Kane is also the head designer for Donatella Versace‘s Versus label.

LINK LOVE: Vogue UK

Christopher Bailey was named Designer of the Year and Burberry won Designer Brand of the Year. Georgia May Jagger was named Model of the Year. Karen Elson presented the Isabella Blow Award for Fashion Creator to Grace Coddington.

LINK LOVE: Fashionista.com

ELEY KISHIMOTO

CHRISTOPHER KANE

AMANDA WAKELEY

For those travelers expecting to see dinosaur exhibits and stuffed jaguar carcasses at London’s Natural History Museum this week, they are in for a rude (but pleasant!) awakening. Instead of specimen collections, the museum is home to various British designers, models, press and buyers. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the second round of Fashion Week hits Europe. Goodbye New York…Hello London!

So London Fashion Week isn’t exactly hard to get into (yes, anyone can purchase admittance, catwalk and goody-bag tickets on the London Fashion Week website) but the Brits are whipping up designs just as innovative and stylish as New York Fashion Week.

This year’s London Fashion Week is rumored to have some of the best styles to date. Similar to the New York Fashion week craze of jumpsuits, London’s first day alone unveiled their take on these flight suits. Unlike New York’s distressed denim and pastel colors for Spring 2009, London designers are whipping up looks using loud colors like hot pink and bright yellow.

And for those designers who need an extra boost getting their collection out there, the British Fashion Council has a sponsorship program helping designers promote their looks. New Gen has launched the careers of British designers Alexander McQueen, Julien Macdonald and many others. Who wouldn’t want a £5,000 – £10,000 cash sponsorship, free utilization of the tents and recognition as a “must-see” designer at London Fashion Week?

London Fashion Week keeps the catwalks bopping until Friday, September 19th. If the Brits can whip up more killer looks (like the ones above), then I am skipping tea and biscuits, grabbing my rain coat and heading to London!