Meet the 8th annual Nashville Fashion Forward Fund Award Recipient
We are proud to announce fashion designer Van Hoang as our 2018 Nashville Fashion Forward Fund recipient. A selection committee from The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee selected Hoang from a diverse group of experienced fashion industry applicants.
The Nashville Fashion Forward Fund of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee is an endowed fund that supports the next generation of fashion industry professionals with ties to Middle Tennessee by providing an annual financial award and resources for experiential professional development opportunities to advance the career of select local talent with demonstrated experience in a fashion-related field based on pre-established criteria.
“I am incredibly honored to be the recipient of this year’s Nashville Fashion Forward Fund,” said Hoang. “This award will enable me to attend the Copenhagen Fashion Summit which is a global conference about sustainability in fashion and this opportunity will allow me to learn from top leaders in the field. I hope to bring this knowledge back to Nashville and turn ideas into action.”
Van Hoang is a designer based in Nashville, TN. She has a B.F.A. in Fashion Design & Merchandising from O’More College of Design as well as an M.A. in Design for Sustainability from Savannah College of Art & Design. Her aesthetic is modern yet timeless, versatile, and functional. She is interested in the intersection of sustainability, fashion, and technology and how those fields can work together to innovate solutions and break down barriers to create a more sustainable fashion system. Hoang’s mission is to offer an alternative to fast fashion that many have become accustomed to. In the past she created one-of-a-kind gowns with intricate craftsmanship and couture techniques. However, she recently launched her namesake high-end ready-to-wear line that is handmade in Nashville and hopes to build a company with sustainability, quality, and community as it’s core values. Hoang showed on the Nashville Fashion Week runway in 2015.
“Talent and commitment was seen in every one of the 18 applications this year and our committee was thrilled to read the record number of applications and be introduced to so many creative voices in our community” said Amy Fair, Vice President, Donor Services at The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. “In the end, it was Van’s incredible presentation and vision for how the experience of traveling to the Copenhagen Fashion Summit would enhance her commitment to sustainable fashion and allow her to begin to build an international network of like-minded individuals interested in the intersection of fashion, sustainability, and technology.”
The establishment of the Nashville Fashion Forward Fund in 2010 by the co-founders of Nashville Fashion Week was inspired by the professional development provided by the Council of Fashion Designers (CFDA) through programs such as the CFDA/VOGUE Fashion Fund. The Nashville Fashion Forward Fund is a component fund of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee that is funded with charitable donations and proceeds from Nashville Fashion Week. The Nashville Fashion Forward Fund ensures that Nashville Fashion Week is not just a signature high-profile event to celebrate creativity, but also an ongoing, sustainable focus for philanthropic support of our community.
Previous Nashville Fashion Forward Fund award recipients include apparel designers Maria Silver, Eric Bornhop, Julianna Bass and Lauren Leonard Phelps; fashion photographer Brett Warren; accessory designer Ceri Hoover, and Elise Joseph, founder of Goodwin.
SAVE THESE DATES
Nashville Fashion Week will take place April 2-6, 2019 in collaboration with our strategic partner OZ Arts Nashville. The fifth annual Nashville Fashion Forward Gala will also take place at OZ Arts on January 19, 2019.
“We are so thrilled to have OZ Arts Nashville as our strategic partner and our home for all of our runway shows again this year,” said Nashville Fashion Week co-founders/managing partners Connie Cathcart-Richardson and Marcia Masulla. “OZ Arts has been a long time friend and supporter of NFW and together we will continue to take Nashville Fashion Week and our creative community to the next level.”
“OZ Arts is proud of its ongoing partnership with Nashville Fashion Week,” said OZ Arts President and CEO Tim Ozgener. “I believe fashion is one of Nashville’s most dynamic creative industries. Helping showcase this industry and its designers while supporting the growth of Nashville’s creative class just makes sense for us at OZ Arts Nashville.”
Cathcart-Richardson and Masulla are excited to showcase the accompishments of Nashville’s established designers as well as new emerging designers found through the NFW application process on the runway at OZ.
“Our mission from day one has been to educate local and national audiences about Nashville’s thriving fashion industry. Nashville Fashion Week and the Nashville Fashion Forward Fund have helped raise awareness of Nashville’s vast creative talent by showcasing over 130 designers and hundreds of local businesses with an investment of over $1 million in the local fashion community over the past eight years,” Cathcart-Richardson and Masulla said. “We look forward to fostering Nashville’s fashion-forward and entrepreneurial talent for many years to come with this volunteer led and run event.”
Nashville Fashion Week was founded in 2010 as an all-volunteer led and run event spotlighting Nashville’s growing fashion community with a sustainable focus of philanthropic support of the Nashville Fashion Forward Fund of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. Nashville Fashion Week features local, regional and national designers and industry professionals in an array of creative events throughout the week to encourage both Nashvillians and visitors to explore the city’s diverse fashion and retail spaces through promotions, partnerships and educational workshops.
Tickets to the Nashville Fashion Forward Gala will go on sale November 26 at NashvilleFashionWeek.com.
