New York, June 03: The Council of Fashion Designers of America again named Narciso Rodriguez, a red carpet favourite of Sarah Jessica Parker and Salma Hayek, as the country's best womenswear designer. Rodriguez, known for sleek, formfitting gowns, won for the second year in a row. Parker and Calvin Klein, Rodriguez's mentor, handed out the award at last night's annual CFDA gala. Rodriguez, who previously worked for Klein, said that when he left the famous design house 10 years ago to launch his own label, a supportive Klein told him that fashion was a difficult business in which true success was rare. "A few nights ago, he (Klein) said that I was doing it and I was doing it well," said a Teary Rodriguez. Parker, the host for fashion's equivalent of the academy awards, ironically didn't include a Rodriguez gown in her wardrobe for the evening. Instead, she wore a dress designed by each of the Gala's three chairpeople: A strapless pink and white polka-dot dress by Carolina Herrera, a nude-coloured dress with a white sequin hem by Vera Wang and a black dress with spaghetti straps and a handkerchief hem by Klein.

She arrived on the red carpet at the New York Public Library in a rose-coloured Oscar de La Renta with a jewelled pin at the hip.


When Adrien Brody presented Michael Kors with the menswear design award, the Oscar winner quipped, "security was tight. They checked my label at the door."

Bureau Report