This fund has launched some of the biggest names in fashion. It's marking 20 years

NEW YORK (AP) — Amid the curated electronic music, models’ cold stares and magazine editors lining the runway at New York Fashion Week this season, several designers felt a particular sense of urgency.

In a little over a month, they will learn whether they have won of one of the most coveted competitions for emerging designers: The Council of Fashion Designers of America/Vogue Fashion Fund.

The fund, which has catapulted past participants including Proenza Schouler and Thom Browne into the upper echelons of fashion, marks its 20th anniversary this year. It provides 10 finalists with access to industry leaders, with mentorship on everything from growing their brands to showing at New York Fashion Week. This year’s judges include Browne, Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, Saks fashion director Roopal Patel and CFDA CEO Steven Kolb.

There's also a financial prize: Winners are awarded $300,000, while two runner-ups receive $100,000 each. To be eligible, designers must be U.S.-based, employ fewer than 30 people and bring in less than $10 million in revenue.

The magnitude of the fund weighs on current finalist Grace Ling, originally from Singapore. Ling, who was honored with the CFDA’s first Asian American and Pacific Islander Genesis grant totaling $100,000 in February, was able to scale up her business from a one-woman show to hiring an additional employee to help with production.

“For the last three years, I have basically been a one-man show,” she said. Winning this fund would allow her to level up immediately.

At Ling’s show, “Neanderthal,” a diverse group of models glided past a jutting rock formation in 3D-printed aluminum looks, carrying her playful purses — including her signature butt bag, shaped like a sculpted derriere. Backstage, Ling described the collection as a modern, sensual interpretation of what she calls primitive chic.

Kolb said the fund separates new designers from the mass of new brands vying for attention.

“The fashion fund is also beyond the tangible mentorship or grant, it’s a visibility play,” the CEO said.

It took Sebastien and Marianne Amisial four tries before they were accepted to the 2024 fund for their brand Sebastien Ami. They began operating the brand during the height of the pandemic and debuted their latest collection, incorporating menswear and unisex looks of olive-flocked denim and pops of bright color into their first New York Fashion Week runway show.

“We did this on a shoestring,” Marianne Amisial said. “It’s just the ability to do something with nothing. And that’s what we’ve done for the last four years.”

Louisiana designer Christopher John Rogers, who grew his brand out of a Bushwick apartment and has since dressed Michelle Obama and Tracee Ellis Ross, won the fund in 2019. Rogers told The Associated Press that the victory gave him the resources to hire a team, produce his second collection and move into a design studio in Soho.

“For me it really meant actually having a shot at running a business and starting a business,” he said.

Shawn Grain Carter, a fashion business management professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology, said designers have to be strategic about their growth strategy, control expenses and do what’s best for their brands.

“Sometimes people think to go to scale means you have to be like Michael Kors,” she said of the big-name brand. “And that’s not the case. I tell emerging designers, you have to be profitable with gross margin profits, whether you are a $5 million company or a $500,000 company or a $5 billion company.”

Jackson Wiederhoeft, known for his theatrical runway shows and corsets, is participating in the fund for a second time after he a transformative experience in 2022.

“The first fashion fund was the reason we started doing runway shows,” he said. “That was very much at the suggestion of Vogue and CFDA.”

He has gone on to produce five more fashion shows — his latest three-part act opened with a choreographed dance performance and closed with 26 size-inclusive veiled models wearing his trademark white wasp satin corsets.

While prepping for his fashion week show, Wiederhoeft was also submitting his final look for the fashion fund's design challenge, which CFDA and Vogue brought back this year after a pandemic-induced pause. As part of the exercise, overseen by Tommy Hilfiger, designers created a look based on the theme “Stars and Stripes.”

The CFDA and Vogue continue to support its finalists past the fund. Rogers and past finalist House of Aama will be taking their designs to the CFDA/Vogue Americans in Paris Initiative during Paris Fashion Week. Rebecca Henry of House of Aama said the showcase comes at a pivotal time as the brand looks to expand.

“We are just looking at how to expand into other markets and especially the international markets,” she said.

Straight after her runway show, Ling was preparing for market appointments, where buyers can come view her collection at her midtown Manhattan showroom. Regardless of whether she wins, she's already thinking about what's next.

“I’m thinking five years down the road,” she said. “I’m thinking 10 years. I’m thinking about tomorrow.”

Singapore designer Grace Ling displays 3D printed designs from her New York Fashion Week collection on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, in New York. Ling is one of ten designers competing in the 2024 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP)

Fashion using 3D printed aluminum from Singapore designer Grace Ling is pictured on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, in New York. Ling is one of ten designers competing for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund prize. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP)

Fashion using 3D printed aluminum from Singapore designer Grace Ling is pictured on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, in New York. Ling is one of ten designers competing for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund prize. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP)

Fashion from Singapore designer and CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist Grace Ling is pictured on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, in New York. Ling showcased her second collection titled "Neanderthal" during New York Fashion Week on Sept. 6. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP)

A mannequin from Singapore designer and CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist Grace Ling is pictured on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, in New York. Ling showcased her second collection titled "Neanderthal" during New York Fashion Week on Sept. 6. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP)

Fashion from Singapore designer and CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist Grace Ling is pictured on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, in New York. Ling showcased her second collection titled "Neanderthal" during New York Fashion Week on Sept. 6. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP)

Singapore designer Grace Ling poses in her showroom where she displays her 3D printed designs on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, in New York. Ling, a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist, showcased her latest collection at New York Fashion Week. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP)

Singapore designer Grace Ling poses in her showroom where she displays her 3D printed designs on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, in New York. Ling, a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist, showcased her latest collection at New York Fashion Week. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP)

Fashion using 3D printed aluminum from Singapore designer Grace Ling is pictured on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, in New York. Ling is one of ten designers competing for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund prize. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP)

Singapore designer Grace Ling poses in her showroom where she displays her 3D printed designs on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, in New York. Ling, a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist, showcased her latest collection at New York Fashion Week. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP)

Singapore designer Grace Ling poses in her showroom where she displays her 3D printed designs on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, in New York. Ling, a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist, showcased her latest collection at New York Fashion Week. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP)

Fashion from Singapore designer and CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist Grace Ling is pictured on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, in New York. Ling showcased her second collection titled "Neanderthal" during New York Fashion Week on Sept. 6. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP)

Singapore designer Grace Ling displays 3D printed designs from her New York Fashion Week collection on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, in New York. Ling is one of ten designers competing in the 2024 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP)

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina Supreme Court has again refused to stop the execution of inmate Freddie Owens who is set to die Friday by lethal injection.

The justices ruled Thursday that a sworn statement from a friend whose testimony helped convict Owens and who now says he lied to save himself from the death chamber wasn't enough to halt prison officials from putting Owens to death.

His execution is set for Friday at 6 p.m. at a Columbia prison for the killing of a Greenville convenience store clerk in 1997. It would be South Carolina's first execution in more than a decade.

Owens' lawyers on Wednesday filed the statement from his co-defendant Steven Golden saying Owens wasn’t at the store when Irene Graves was killed during a robbery. They said they were disappointed by the justices' decision.

“South Carolina is on the verge of executing a man for a crime he did not commit," attorney Gerald “Bo” King said in a statement. “We will continue to advocate for Mr. Owens.”

Prosecutors reiterated that several other witnesses testified that Owens told them he pulled the trigger. And just like it did last week when Golden said in a sworn statement he had a a secret deal with prosecutors that he never told the jury about, the state Supreme Court agreed the execution should go on.

The justices wrote on Thursday that there was no evidence Golden had an independent attorney to talk to about his recent statements and they did not name who might have killed Graves if Owens didn't do it.

In his statement, Golden said he blamed Owens because he was high on cocaine and police put pressure on him by claiming they already knew the two were together and that Owens was talking. Golden also said he feared the real killer.

“I thought the real shooter or his associates might kill me if I named him to police. I am still afraid of that. But Freddie was not there,” Golden wrote in his statement.

Golden testified at Owens' trial, saying prosecutors promised to consider his testimony in his favor but he still faced the death penalty or life in prison. He was eventually sentenced to 28 years in prison after pleading guilty to a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter, according to court records.

"I’m coming forward now because I know Freddie’s execution date is September 20 and I don’t want Freddie to be executed for something he didn’t do. This has weighed heavily on my mind and I want to have a clear conscience," Golden wrote in his statement.

Prosecutors have said Golden wasn't the only evidence linking Owens to the crime since other friends testified that they, along with Owens, had planned to rob the store. Those friends said Owens bragged to them about killing Graves. His former girlfriend also testified that he confessed to the killing.

Prosecutors argued last week that Golden's decision to change his story shouldn't be enough to stop the execution because he has now admitted to lying under oath, thereby showing that he cannot be trusted to tell the truth.

“There is no indication that Golden will testify; there is no reasoning to why Owens would admit the shooting (of) Ms. Graves to officers, his girlfriend, and his mother if he was not the shooter as now claimed,” the state Attorney General's Office wrote in court papers.

Also on Thursday, a group called South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty presented a petition with more than 10,000 signatures to Gov. Henry McMaster's office asking him to reduce Owens' sentence to life in prison.

“Justice works for restoration. You cannot restore someone who you kill,” said the group's executive director, Rev. Hillary Taylor, as she read from one of the comments on the petition.

McMaster, a Republican, has said he will wait to announce his decision on clemency until prison officials call him minutes before the execution begins.

Owens would be the first person executed in South Carolina in 13 years after the state struggled to obtain drugs needed for lethal injections because companies refused to sell them if they could be publicly identified.

The state added a firing squad option and passed a shield law to keep much of the details of executions private. The state Supreme Court then cleared the way for the death chamber to reopen this summer.

Five other inmates are also out of appeals and the state can schedule executions every five weeks.

South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty Executive Director Rev. Hillary Taylor speaks at a news conference before delivering petitions to stop the execution of Freddie Owens at the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, S.C., Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty Executive Director Rev. Hillary Taylor speaks at a news conference before delivering petitions to stop the execution of Freddie Owens at the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, S.C., Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)