Bicoastal Brock Collection wins the 2016 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award

Senior Features Writer

Nov. 8, 2016 3:20 PM PT

The evening before the country would choose a new president, the Council of Fashion Designers of America and Vogue magazine hosted a dinner in New York City to announce that the 2016 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award winners were Laura Vassar Brock and Kristopher Brock of Brock Collection.

The win means an award of $400,000 for the husband-and-wife design team who lives in Newport Beach as well as business mentoring services to help grow the luxury women’s label the couple founded in New York City in 2013.

Although neither of L.A.’s two hometown brands, Stampd or Newbark, took top honors, this is still a win for the West Coast because Brock Collection has offices not only in New York’s Garment District but also in downtown Los Angeles. (And the flower-crowned prairie fairies wearing Brock Collection at the Oct. 26 finalists’ fashion show at the Chateau Marmont seemed to have a serious L.A. vibe, despite the bleating baby goat one model carried in her arms.)

Stirling Barrett of Krewe du Optic and Adam Selman each received $150,000 as runners-up. The winners were winnowed from a field of 10 finalists that included Beckett Fogg and Piotrek Panszczyk (for their Area label), Chloe Gosselin, Ji Oh, Morgan Curtis (for her Morgan Lane label) and Laurence Chandler and Joshua Cooper (for their Rochambeau brand).

Launched in 2003 by the CFDA and Vogue, the Fashion Fund program was created to foster emerging American design talent. Last year, Jonathan Simkhai, Gypsy Sport’s Rio Uribe and Brother Vellies’ Aurora James shared the top honor. Previous winners include Paul Andrew (in 2014), Public School’s Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne (2013) and L.A.’s Greg Chait, who took the prize in 2012 for the Elder Statesman cashmere label.