CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Chooses 10 Finalists The 10 finalists for this year's CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund were announced on Wednesday evening, and this being the fund's 10th year, the organizers decided to have a big reveal. Past participants in the program, which is designed to encourage new designers with financial and mentoring support, gathered at the meatpacking district studio of Rag & Bone to hear the news. Marcus Wainwright and David Neville, the Rag & Bone designers, competed for the award in 2006, but lost that year. Anyway, they've gone from one employee to 300 since then, and the designers still credit the fund and its connections for helping their success. So this year's finalists include four women's wear designers, four men's wear designers and two who make accessories. Misha Nonoo (of the label Nonoo), Veronica Miele Beard and Veronica Swanson Beard (of Veronica Beard), Ryan Lobo and Ramon Martin (of Tome) and Juan Carlos Obando are the women's designers. The men's designers include Public School (by Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne), Tim Coppens and Todd Snyder - all of whom were, by the way, the nominees for this year's Swarovski Award for men's wear at the CFDA Awards. Also from men's wear are Shimon and Ariel Ovadia of Ovadia & Sons. Rounding out the group are the accessories labels Parabellum and Marc Alary Jewelry. All of these designers will participate in a months-long process to determine a winner and runners-up who will be announced at a dinner in New York on Nov. 11. In 10 years of Fashion Fund awards, the event has included practically every young designer working in America (Proenza Schouler, Alexander Wang, Rodarte and Joseph Altuzarra), and while not all of them have gone on to major success, the fund has inspired a lot of focus on the new generation of designers. Or at least a lot of demand for more prizes. On July 4, the French awards ANDAM, founded in 1989, announced its fellowship winners, giving its grand prix to Alexandre Mattiussi of the hot men's wear label Ami and another prize to Christine Phung. On Monday, the winners of a similar contest in Italy, called Who is on Next and open to any designer who produces in Italy, were announced: Esme Vie and Arthur Arbesser for clothing and the New York shoe designer Paul Andrew for accessories. And Mr. Altuzarra, on Tuesday, received yet another prize. He was named the winner of the United States division of International Woolmark Prize, a recently revived competition sponsored by wool makers. He will go on to compete in the global finals in Milan in February.