As head of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), Tom Ford has partnered with Anna Wintour on repurposing the once annual CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund to help designers and small fashion businesses affected by coronavirus. 

Initially set up in the wake of 9/11, which caused long and irreparable effects on New York’s fashion industry, the Fashion Fund, a collaboration between the CFDA and Vogue, was a competition designed to platform new talents. 

Now, as COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc on the fashion world (and all other aspects of life), this scheme will be entitled ‘A Common Thread’, and “will tell stories about how American designers and their workers and colleagues are coping.”  

Coming in the form of a series of videos which will live on both Vogue and the CFDA’s website, people will be given an opportunity to donate money, with both platforms also using crowdsourcing schemes to help those who have been affected by the pandemic.

“(This is a) fund-raising initiative supporting those in the American fashion community who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic,” a statement from Vogue and the CFDA read. 

Providing help to designers who have seen their businesses suffer as a result of the virus, the initiative will also help members of fashion’s supply chain, including seamstresses and manufacturers, with those entitled not even needing to be a CFDA member or a Fashion Fund participant.  

Speaking on Vogue, Wintour explained: “I have been hearing from those who fear they won’t make payroll, or who have seen orders returned, their stores closed, who fear their businesses and their livelihoods may not survive what we’re going through. And all of us at Vogue – together with the Council of Fashion Designers of America – are determined to help.”

The first applications will be available from April 8.