There’s no discounting the appeal of a true movie star — and Anne Hathaway certainly fits that bill. The actress was resplendent in a striking fire engine red vintage Valentino gown when she presented the John B. Fairchild Honor to Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti during the WWD Honors event Tuesday night.
The WWD Honors recognizes individuals and companies for their achievements, both in their lifetimes and in the past year.
“All great designers have something in common. They can’t help it. They can’t help but see the world through their eyes,” Hathaway said. “Great designers are creative forces, inventors, philosophers, artists, who optimize everything available to them into a single line that becomes synonymous with their very name. By that definition, I think we can all agree that Valentino Garavani is among the greatest and most mythic designers who has ever lived.”
And his lifelong partnership with Giammetti has combined to “create a far more beautiful world” that “celebrates and empowers women at every step.”
That partnership led to the creation of “a non-stop ascension to the annals of fashion history, with the name Valentino becoming synonymous with beauty, taste, sophistication, culture, glamour and, of course, the color red,” Hathaway added. “As remarkable as their professional achievements are, it’s their values that define them, in particular, their thoughtfulness, generosity and warmth.”
For more than two decades, Hathaway said, she has enjoyed a unique friendship with the duo, one “marked by laughter, music, art, dancing and love.” They created a custom Valentino couture gown for her wedding and through this friendship she has “joined the legacy of women who have felt themselves transformed, their best qualities highlighted by the hand of the maestro.”
Although Garavani was unable to make the trip, Giammetti accepted the award on behalf of the duo, saying: “If we are here tonight to be honored, it is because of him, it’s not because of me. I’ve been just a little part of his journey.”
He said the two met in 1960 when he was 22 and studying architecture — “but I was not very good.” They became friends and then partners and the key to their long and storied career, he believes, is that “I left him free to do what he wanted, what he believed in” — a decision that has paid off handsomely over the years.
Valentino was not the only designer receiving awards during the evening, which also celebrated the 115th anniversary of WWD.
Accepting the Edward Nardoza CEO Creative Leadership Award was Patrice Louvet, president and chief executive officer of Ralph Lauren Corp.
“You have brilliantly chronicled the evolution of fashion for decades, and it’s really a privilege to be a part of that story for me tonight. Helping to shape this chapter of Ralph Lauren is the honor of a life,” said Louvet. “Every day, I have the incredible opportunity to partner with Ralph. The clarity and consistency of his vision, his relentless standards and his belief that timeless style can inspire the dream of a better life has had a profound impact on me as a leader, and for that, I am incredibly grateful.”
Louvet went on to thank Lauren “for all his trust and partnership over the years and enabling me to drive his cars once in a while. I haven’t crashed any in eight-and-a-half years, so have a decent track record,” said Louvet. He also thanked David Lauren and the board for their “unwavering support,” as well as all the team at Ralph Lauren and his family.
“And when I think about the world that the next generation and my children will inherit, I see a critical role for our industry to play. Fashion at its best is an act of optimism, of aspiration, a belief in what’s possible. Put simply, we help people dream. We give them a moment of confidence, of creativity as they get dressed in the morning or get ready for an event like tonight,” said Louvet.
“Delivering that kind of optimism to millions asks something of all of us. It takes courage. It takes leadership. It’s choosing quality over shortcut, purpose over noise, long-term vision over short-term thinking. It means investing in creativity, especially when it’s not easy. To all of us in this room, let’s continue to champion creativity, quality and excellence and lead with optimism, consistently giving people something to dream about. It is an absolute privilege to be part of this extraordinary community,” said Louvet.
In accepting the award for Company of the Year, Public, Joanne Crevoiserat, CEO of Tapestry Inc., said, “This is quite an honor particularly in an industry full of great businesses, entrepreneurs and innovators. It is truly an honor, and it much appreciated. And as Patrice said, and as we all know in this room, this is a tough business. I think you can agree, we love it. Some of us are addicted to it. Congratulations on 115 years of documenting it.”
She said Tapestry has been going through a transformation with an objective of bringing their iconic brand to a new generation of consumers around the world. “And as Todd Kahn [CEO of Coach] likes to say, ‘We’re an overnight success, five years in the making,’ and I’m sure you can all relate to that, but our success and our achievement wouldn’t be possible without great talent and a great culture…
“I might get some debates tonight, but I believe we have the best team in the business, and we have an incredible team who bring their passion and their talent to serve our brands and our consumers every day, and they never lose focus on what’s important, which is supporting each other, focusing on the consumer with humility and an insatiable curiosity to really understand what consumers are going through and then doing what we do best and what they do best, bringing that creativity and operational excellence together. We call it the balance of magic and logic to delight our customers every day. And so on behalf of our 18,000 associates around the world, I’m pleased to accept this award and recognition,” she said.
Veronica Beard received the Company of the Year, Private, Honor. Cofounder Veronica Swanson Beard, in accepting the award, said, “This is such an honor and we are truly humbled by this. Building this business has been the greatest joy and privilege and we owe our success completely to our team. They are the most creative and collaborative and dedicated people, and they believe like we do in designing this dream wardrobe for a way of life. We built this together as family and alongside friends, very dear friends and colleagues who feel like family, and it has been the most rewarding 15 years of our lives.”
Swanson Beard thanked the company’s president, Stephanie Unwin, and Allison Aston, the senior vice president of partnerships, events and charitable giving at Veronica Beard. She also thanked their wholesale partners, who believed in them from the beginning and created the foundation of their brand.
Cofounder Veronica Miele Beard, added, “I’m the other Veronica. Danny Meyer said it best. In life and in business, it’s all about how we make others feel,” whether through the perfect piece of clothing or philanthropy, or customer service can make you feel good. “That rack of Dickey jackets that we had, that we curated so carefully back in 2010, became a metaphor for our brand. We had her back. We thought about where she was going and how she was feeling when she got there. She slayed the dragons with the wonderful cape. That armor of confidence inspires us to this day as we think about every category and piece we design. We have so much gratitude and respect for our customer who has trusted us, inspired us and shown up for us every step of the way on this journey.”
This year, Willy Chavarria and Givenchy’s Sarah Burton were singled out as the men’s and women’s designers of the year, respectively.
Actor and singer Jeremy Pope was on hand to present Chavarria with his award, calling him an “uplifting designer…who is gentle and kind and chooses to lead with heart, integrity and truth. “Willy launched his namesake label not to follow the rules of fashion, but to redefine and redirect our imagination surrounding it,” Pope said. “His work marries intentional sharp tailoring with deep storytelling — giving power and visibility to those often unseen. Through his collections, he challenges perceptions connecting luxury to the realities of social injustice, always making space to reflect the world as it is, while pushing it towards something better in style, with a story and a nasty shoulder pad.”
Chavarria took the opportunity to look back at his 30-plus year fashion career, which included stints at everyone from Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren to Yeezy, and said his story was the true American dream. “I am this little Mexican kid from a town in the middle of nowhere that knew nothing about fashion. But I had this belief and this dream and this faith that I could do anything.”
But although he’s experienced the success he’d always dreamed of, Chavarria’s mission remains the same: to champion the underrepresented communities. “I want to dedicate this amazing award to all of the brown skin babies, just like me, and all of the black skin brothers and sisters out there and all of the queer babies out there who make the gift that we bring to the world. So please, let’s not forget that, and let’s protect them in everything we do, and let’s stand up for them, and let’s remember that the world we’re in right now is not our friend, and it’s up to us to change it. So please, let’s do that together.”
Burton was presented her award by Sidney Toledano, CEO of the LVMH Fashion Group, which owns Givenchy. He said that one of the most difficult jobs in fashion is to find the right designer for an existing brand and then ensure that person will mesh with the management team. “You can have a very talented designer but [it may not work] with the CEO or manager. So you have to balance those three points.”
So when LVMH was looking for a designer for Dior, Toledano called on the late Karl Lagerfeld for advice. Lagerfeld pointed to the “young lady” who was working at Alexander McQueen at the time as someone he believed would be a fit. Toledano reached out to her, but because Burton was pregnant at the time, “she didn’t return my call,” he said.
However, when the Givenchy opportunity came about, he revisited the idea and they agreed to meet. Their conversation about “silhouette, material and the atelier, which for me are the real values of fashion,” convinced him she was the right choice for the role.
The decision turned out to be the fortuitous and Burton said moving to Givenchy “has been like an exhilarating breath of fresh air for me — a fresh start. It is truly a beautiful, beautiful house. It inspires and empowers women” and the team, including long-term stylist Camilla Nickerson, “and their belief that creativity is the heart of everything we do,” has been key to her success.
Businesses were also singled out for their success at the event.
Since its founding in 1860, Tag Heuer has become “synonymous with a maverick spirit,” said Béatrice Goasglas, president of the Americas of the Swiss company that was presented with this year’s Watch Brand of the Year Honor. She said the company always seeks to “push the boundaries” and strives for the “eternal pursuit of excellence.”
For the past 165 years, Tag Heuer has become “far more than just a watch,” she added. “It’s all about emotion and very deep values such as precision, innovation and design…which is embedded in everything we do.”
That is evident in the company’s newly inked sponsorship with Formula 1, a partnership whose roots can be traced to the company’s founder, Edouard Heuer, who created stopwatches and chronographs for motor sport racing in the early 20th century. “In sport, and especially motor racing,” Goasglas said, “a millisecond can really make the difference to determine victory. And while our passion for performance is obvious, it’s also very important to remember that we are equally committed to showcase the highest level of craftsmanship and innovation.”
Craftsmanship and innovation are also hallmarks of Tiffany & Co., which received the Jewelry Brand of the Year Honor. Michael Burke, chairman and CEO of LVMH Americas and chairman of Tiffany’s, opted to tell a joke in his acceptance speech since the company’s recent success was chronicled in detail by WWD’s introduction. That included its elevated brand positioning, expanded global reach, strength in high jewelry sales and rich heritage that was mined as far back as six decades ago in the famous “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” film, as well as Guillermo del Toro’s new take on “Frankenstein” for Netflix where the company’s archival jewelry is front and center.
“I’m going to tell you a story that you probably don’t know,” Burke said. “It’s a little-known fact that after the French Revolution, everything that belonged to the queen and king was put up for auction. They had so much luxury goods in Versailles, it took years to disseminate the collections and that allowed Tiffany to do the one thing that they did better than any European house: they bought the queen’s jewelry, and from that moment on, Tiffany was known for its guts.”
Throughout the 19th century, Burke continued, Tiffany continued to purchase “the most unusual, undiscovered, unnamed, unheard-of gemstones of all colors.” But because times are tougher today than then, Tiffany’s isn’t able to buy as many stones as in the past. “So we actually stole the jewels this year,” Burke said with a smile, referring to the recent heist at The Louvre.
On the beauty front, Interparfums Inc. was awarded with Beauty Company of the Year, Public. During the acceptance speech from chairman, CEO and cofounder Jean Madar, he noted that fragrance, like fashion, is built on emotional resonance from everyday habits.
“Fragrance moves us, it brings back memories,” Madar said. “When I started Interparfums 40 years ago with my dear friend, Philippe Benacin, we had just a few thousand dollars in our pockets, but we shared the same dream, the hard work, the successes and of course, the failures.”
After characterizing the company as a “40-year-old start-up,” he continued that that attitude is “because of our spirit, our agility, and because of our desire to grow, curiosity, creativity and dedication which drive us every single day.”
The company has roughly tripled its sales in five years, which Madar credited to his team, “the dedicated perfumers, designers, our valued distributors and retail partners,” Madar said. “Thank you to our license partners, some of whom are here tonight, like Coach and Donna Karan. And for those of you that are not members of our family yet, we are open to new business.”
The company that took home Beauty Company of the Year, Private, was an early pioneer to the K-Beauty boom and has since maintained a growing brand beyond trend.
“I launched Peach & Lily the company in 2012 and we pioneered the K-Beauty movement,” said the winning company’s founder Alicia Yoon. “We launched the brand in 2018 to address a market gap that was both personal and universal, and persists to this day.
“Effective skin care can be divided into two categories: one, products with sufficient concentration of potent active ingredients to address serious skin concerns, but can cause significant irritation; or two, products that may hydrate, soothe and support the skin but are underpowered to address concerns. Peach & Lily exists at the intersection.”
Indeed, Yoon called out that 50 percent of skin care consumers who identify as having sensitive skin, and tapped a range of dermatologists, researchers, chemists, and years with labs in Korea, “in each product category and subcategory,” to achieve the brand’s potent-yet-gentle products.
“We have a 20 percent vitamin C, a retinoid, maximum levels of acids, all clinically proven for zero irritation with the National Eczema Association seal,” Yoon continued. “Our loyal community has helped us become one of beauty’s fastest growing and most productive brands, and we are just getting started.”
