The Couture Design Awards remain a big draw at the Couture Show, with a full-capacity audience filling the Encore Ballroom at the Wynn Resort in Las Vegas. If the diverse winning designs had anything in common this year, it was the presence of color. There were emeralds, green garnets, rainbow enamel, pink conch pearls, pink feathers, and sapphires in every shade. Also this year, competition organizers introduced an additional cash prize and a new category.
The Best in Debuting prize is open to designers exhibiting at Couture for the first time. At the 2019 ceremony, the winner received an inaugural $10,000 grant toward his or her Couture expenses next year. Brazilian-Armenian jeweler Ara Vartanian took home that award for his emerald earrings with smoky-grey and white diamonds in 18-karat white gold. Remy Sasha — daughter of editor and author Cindy Edelstein, a longtime champion of jewelry designers, who died in 2016 — presented the prize. “I think this is an incredible way for Couture to showcase their support for artists, and continue to carry on my mom’s legacy,” she said.
Then there was the new “WTF?!” award, a lighthearted look at some of the self-admitted gaffes made by designers — all of whom entered their own works. The winner was Stephen Webster for what he described as a “design disaster.” Each year, the name of the WTF?! winner will be engraved on a medallion and passed down to the following year’s recipient.
Michelle Orman, meanwhile, received the Cindy Edelstein Award for her hard work and commitment to the industry at large, and specifically to the Couture community.
Image: ShutterstockArticle from the Rapaport Magazine - July 2019. To subscribe click here.