Knowing that a little laughter is always levitating at any awards show, the Fashion Group International has recruited the actress and producer Tiffany Haddish to host its Rising Star Awards ceremony.
Slated for April 16 in New York City, the Emmy-, Grammy- and NAACP Image award-winning talent will headline the red carpet event. Attendees may know her from films like “Girls Trip” or her New York Times bestselling books “The Last Black Unicorn” and “I Curse You With Joy.”
This year’s event will honor Robert Chavez, executive chairman of Hermès Americas, with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Four fashion industry forces Fern Mallis, Gary Wassner, Ken Downing and Reem Acra have signed up to hand out some of the awards. Others have yet to be announced. Designers, executives, style setters and other guests at the luncheon will salute standouts in a wide range of categories in fashion, beauty and other sectors. Hilldun Corp.’s Gary Wassner will present the Hilldun Business Innovation Award to Carly Bigi, founder of Laws of Motion.
Hilldun Corp. and Macy’s will sponsor this year’s event. The location will be announced next week.
This year’s finalists for Beauty are Ashunta Sheriff-Kendricks of Ashunta Sheriff Beauty; Delphine Breyne of Delphine Eyebrow Couture; Irina Sergeeva of French Perfumery House; Pritika Swarup of Prakti; Rosie Mangiarotti of Perkies, and Mair Emenogu of MAIR. For the Fine Jewelry award, the contenders are Julie Kim of Bijules; Paola Sasplugas of PDPaola; Hiba Husayni of Zahn-Z Jewelry, and Isabel Calvert of Sette Jewelry.
Robert Chavez
Matteo Prandoni/BFA.com
This year’s nominees for the Accessories award are Sangmin Park of 4CCCCEES; Montserrat Messeguer of Montserrat Messeguer; Nanette Adair of Rex Shoes; Sydnie Peebles of Sydnie Banks; Rob Bacon of The 3rd Jewelry, and Alicia Stemper of Wondermint Goods.
Creatives will vie for different Fashion Apparel Rising Star awards including Bridal, which comes down to Guillermo Pharis of Guillermo Pharis Bridal, Francesca Guzzo-Whyte and Jaclyn Whyte of Jaclyn Whyte and Priscilla Carvalho of Priscilla Couture. For the Fashion Apparel: Eveningwear category, the finalists are Natasha Das of Danarys New York, Evan Hirsch of the Evan Hirsch label, Jeanette Limas of the Jeanette Limas brand, Peter Williams of Mr. Macramé and Natalia Fedner of Natalia Fedner.
Carly Bigi
The 2025 nominees for Fashion Apparel: Ready-to-wear are Bonnie Young of BY. Bonnie Young; Joe Millman of Chamberlin; Diego Binetti of Love Binetti; Lee Evans Lee of Mrs [sic] Momma Bear; Tania Mackey of Niczka; Papa Oppong of the Papa Oppong brand; Najla Burt and Cynthia Burt of Dur Doux, Alice Kim of PerfectDD; Jack Sivan of Sivan, and Shwetambari Mody of Shwetambari.
In other FGI news, Alyce Panico, chief executive officer of the Luxe Collective Group, has been named chairperson of the FGI’s board. She succeeds James D’Adamo, who served in that role for six years and will continue to act as a board director and adviser. Panico has been a member of FGI’s board of directors for the past five years and served as the co-chair of its 2024 Night of Stars gala.
